The quality and duration of the senate meetings under the Parent-Benites administration were questioned during the audience question-and-answer portion of election speeches.

Luke Chadwick, Vice President of the Class of 2024, said that the last two senate meetings ran for 14 minutes and 9 minutes. He also noted that a recent SGA leaders retreat was poorly attended. “Not everyone has had something to report and there’s been fewer resolutions and less dialogues during the meetings,” he said. He posed the question to each set of candidates, “What would your administration do to improve the senate culture and increase dialogue?”

Current Vice President Diego Benites pushed back, saying that the new tempo of the meetings is more efficient. “Last year, there was too much internal debate about trivial things,” he said “Sometimes there’s not much going on. Some days you’re going to have a lot to talk about and some days you’re not,” he continued.

He did, however, offer a solution when he stated that a community service requirement for members could help boost participation during the meetings. 

Vice presidential candidate Michael Hanna shared his belief of needing reform within SGA. He questioned the amount of resolutions that have been reached this year. “We’ve had, I want to say, two resolutions this year. I think there needs to be more and that’s why I want to expand the e-board.”

Molly Timberlake and Hanna plan to expand the e-boards of SGA to include non-voting members from groups such as the Academic Resource Center, the Intercultural Center, and Campus Ministry, in order to get more voices and inputs in SGA and in the meetings to spark debate. 

Outsider candidates Aidan Carroll and William Dervin have no experience at SGA senate meetings but aim to have inclusive and expansive ones. “We are talking about having people from the public coming into the Senate meetings and being part of the conversations,” Carroll said. “My goal is to get people more involved and I’d be happy to take suggestions.”