By Paul T. Choate
March 19, 2012. BOONE – The Appalachian State University Student Government Association (SGA) will hold their only presidential debate tomorrow night, March 20, at 6:30 p.m. in the Linville Falls room of the Plemmons Student Union.
The presidential and vice presidential candidates are as follows: Jay Cox and Eric Barnes; Evan Freemyer and Bobby Lee; Steven Hatley and Chelsey Hanna.
This year candidates operated on a limited campaigning period. Official campaigning began today, only one day prior to the debate.
Each ticket will get to make a three minute opening statement. Candidates will then face multiple rounds of questioning.
“We have a panel of four students and the moderator, each of whom will ask two questions on behalf of the students they represent,” said Elections Board Chair Frank Byrne. “After that section is over, we’ll be taking questions from the audience. The topics will be many and varied … it should be a good cross section of current events and ongoing issues.”
The moderator for the debate is Dr. Jeff Motter, ASU debate coach with the Communications Department.
Each ticket will have two minutes and thirty seconds to respond to each question. Tickets will also have the opportunity for a thirty second rebuttal at the moderator’s discretion. During panel questions, all questions will be directed to every ticket. Questions may be directed to a single ticket during audience questions. The response order will rotate during all rounds of questioning.
At the conclusion of the rounds of questioning each ticket will get to make a three minute closing statement.
Voting begins at 8:00 a.m. on Friday, March 23, and runs through Wednesday, March 28 at 8:00 a.m. The winner will be announced by no later than 5:00 p.m. on March 28. According to Byrne, if there is a tie, a runoff debate will be held at 6:00 p.m. in the Price Lake room of the Plemmons Student Union.
According to Kyle Schermbeck, SGA Chief of Staff, candidates must have completed 60 semester hours with a minimum 2.5 GPA to be eligible to run.
SGA officials serve one year terms.
For more information, visit sga.appstate.edu.
Photos and quotes on graphic courtesy of The Appalachian.
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