Correction -- voting ended at 6 p.m. Monday evening.

The Student Government Association presidential candidates’ campaign platforms differ slightly, but all three emphasize the importance of being the student body’s voice. Students can vote for SGA president beginning at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 3.

The Feb. 26 presidential debates brought out a large group of students to the comparably small room in the Pharmacy Building. Candidates Joey Groot, Alex Olympidis and Ryan Waggoner spoke to the students about what they have achieved this year and what they would like to see changed in SGA if elected its new president.

Groot, who was the first to speak to the crowd of red, black and green shirts supporting each candidate, told the students that he wants to improve the programming on Butler’s campus. He said he wants to aim for a 24-hour window for students to vote on Program Board’s top concert candidates.

“That’s something that I think will improve everyone’s input on concerts and big events,” he said. “Program Board will reach its mission more readily because of that.”

In his third year with SGA, Groot (a junior economics major) is the public relations and advertising chairman of CPA (Council of Presidential Affairs). He said his leadership style is not one that plans a grand vision for the year, but one that listens and asks the right questions.

“I wasn’t really consulted about dining services here or living on campus an extra year,” he said. “It’s the SGA’s job to represent those student interests to the administration before they make big decisions like that.”

Groot said his motivation is to represent the student body so that its priorities match with the decision making of the administration.

Not surprisingly, the concept of leadership proved to be the dominating topic among the candidates.

Sophomore candidate Ryan Waggoner said, “SGA needs a leader who is going to be a force in uniting this campus.”

Waggoner, who has been president of his class for two years, said he is passionate about uniting the campus and plans to make this happen by embracing diversity.

“When you invite diversity to the table, when you listen in closely to the opinions of those who disagree with you and when you promote inclusion in decision-making processes, great things will always happen.”

Waggoner said he plans to continue with this mentality if elected president of SGA, where he has been involved in four of the five executive boards.

Candidate Alex Olympidis told the supporters that he has seen SGA leaders try to represent the students, administration, faculty and staff combined.

“We need to make sure that we have a leader that’s going to work for you and represent you alone,” he told the students.

To do this, Olympidis said he plans to include students outside of what he calls the “SGA bubble” in the decision-making process.

The junior political science major also said he thinks there needs to be an updated budget. Students need to know where their money is going, he said.

“Why can’t that money be better suited, if you want it to be, to a more expensive concert, twice a semester?”

As well as leadership, diversity was a central issue in the debates.

“The university has kind of made this mindset that the more times we can say diversity in a sentence, the more diverse our campus will become,” Waggoner said. “Shockingly, that’s not working. What we need to do is focus on R.E.A.C.H.”

Waggoner said that two improvements could be made to R.E.A.C.H (Respecting, Embracing & Achieving Community Harmony) to improve on-campus diversity, such as uniting the diversity organizations themselves. He proposed diversity retreats and getting more students involved in diversity issues.

“When this happens, we can embrace diversity at a whole new level,” he said.

After the recent shooting tragedies at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, on-campus safety has also proven to be a major topic of discussion among campus leaders.

Olympidis said that the university’s specific protocol in the event of a similar tragedy needs to be better publicized.

“The ‘Butler bubble’ will not protect us from everything,” he said. “There are steps that we can take to make sure that we minimize that chance as much as we can.”

Groot said that he feels that university administrators and supervisors are trained for situations like this, but that there is a disconnection between the training of professors and students.

“We need to be better informed, and they need to actually have training for our professors in case something like that would happen,” he said.

Waggoner posed the idea of more adequate lighting between residence halls and the Health and Recreation Complex, a possibility he would explore if elected president.

The last portion of the debates left time for the candidates to pose questions to each other to get a more specific grasp on the goals they have envisioned.

As they made closing statements all three candidates focused primarily on the need for a change in leadership. Olympidis summarized the responsibility they each feel is important.

“If you’ve never had a disagreement with an administrator and you call yourself a student leader then you’re clearly not representing the voice of all students and that’s your responsibility,” he said.

Students can vote for SGA president beginning at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 3.


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