Meet the Candidates:
Empower: Jes Wade
Junior telecommunications, marketing and sales major
• 1 year of SGA experience
• Currently SGA’s Student Voluntary Services representative
• Fun fact: Also president of the Rugby Club
Cardinal Connection: Nick Wilkey
Junior risk management and insurance major
• 2 years of SGA experience
• This year on fundraising and corporate relations Dance Marathon committees
• Fun fact: Also in Urban Gamers League
Presidential nominees will face off tonight in the final debate of student government election season.
Nick Wilkey, Cardinal Connection presidential nominee, will debate against Jes Wade, Empower presidential candidate, at the presidential debate at 7 p.m. in Art and Journalism Building Room 175.
Debate moderator Payne Horning said the all-slate debate showed some gaps in the slates’ platform points and this is the last chance to resolve those gaps.
“I understand they don’t want to let students down or their expectations to be set too high, but when you are campaigning, you campaign with promises,” he said. “Both slates need to emphasize they can achieve those promises.”
Horning expressed concern specifically about the feasibility of Cardinal Connection’s food pantry platform point and Empower’s safety platform point.
He said he thinks the presidential candidates need to bring more to the table in the final debate.
“I hope they go home and they do more research, and they come with a platform that is more sound,” Horning said. “It’s late in the election. We may not get that.”
On Wednesday afternoon, elections board chairperson Alex Sventeckis addressed Senate about personal attacks on the senators.
He said some of the Twitter conversation surrounding Tuesday night’s debate lent itself toward attacks instead of a discussion of issues.
“It should infuriate you to hear this is going on,” he said. “Someone is using your good name as an organization and blaspheming it and throwing it into the dirt.”
Sventeckis asked the senators to step up and put a stop to any negative behavior.
“I will not have what happened last year happen again this year,” he said. “We cannot let the message that we will turn on our own make it out there.”
CANDIDATES
For Wade, being the Empower presidential nominee wasn’t always the plan.
Wade said her slate came together in October and Gabrielle Bunn, vice presidential nominee, was originally set to be the presidential candidate. The slate changed its arrangement when they realized Bunn’s SGA experience made her more capable to lead Senate meetings as vice president.
“I’m really passionate and really personable,” Wade said. “I can have a conversation [with a student] and also go and talk to administration about student issues. … I can do what I need to do to represent the student body.”
She joked that the only way to make Ball State better would be to move it to an area with better weather, but she said diversity is an area in which the university needs to grow.
“I really like [Ball State] the way it is,” she said. “I think every student here should be aware of diversity on campus, and I want every student to be OK with the differences.”
Cardinal Connection’s Wilkey is no stranger to the campaign trail.
His older brother, Chris, was president on the Alliance slate and served in office in the 2012-13 school year. Wilkey followed his brother’s footsteps last year as the vice presidential candidate on the Fusion slate.
This year, Wilkey said his brother encouraged him to run as presidential nominee.
“There aren’t many people on this campus that really know the ins and outs of being president,” he said. “When [Chris] said, ‘I believe in you,’ and when some of the administrators said the same, I started to believe in myself.”
In high school, Wilkey was his senior class president. He said he’s always been a “big thinker” and he has dreams for Ball State’s campus.
“I’ve always wanted to be at a school with NCAA basketball tournaments,” he said. “I just wanted [Ball State] to be bigger than it is. I want our students to want to come here more than other colleges; I want Ball State to be the first choice for more students in Indiana and around the country.”
Read More
AP: Biden's upcoming graduation speech roils Morehouse College, a center of Black politics and culture
By The Associated Press / 2 days agoWhen he gives the commencement address at Morehouse College, President Joe Biden will have his most direct engagement with college students since the start of the Israel-Hamas war at a center of Black politics and culture.
Indiana Capital Chronicle: Rokita warns Indiana college officials to guard against campus antisemitism
By Indiana Capital Chronicle / 3 days agoAttorney General Todd Rokita on Wednesday issued a warning to postsecondary officials: “Hateful antisemitic acts against Jewish students will not be tolerated.”
Authors of book “Cold Case Muncie" host event at Muncie Public Library
By Ellie Marker / 4 days agoTrue crime journalists and authors Douglas Walker and Keith Roysdon co-wrote a book titled, “Cold Case Muncie.” At the Carnegie Library May 14, the authors shared comments about their findings as well as a Q&A session with the audience.
