One week before the campuswide election that will determine next year’s student government leadership, the candidates took to the debate stage on Thursday to discuss their platforms.

The 12 candidates included are running to be the student representative on the University Council and for each of the SA’s six Executive Board positions — president, executive vice president, vice president for finance, vice president for student success, vice president for multicultural affairs and vice president for programming — and fielded moderator and audience questions on their plans for addressing student needs. The debate, held in Science I from 8 p.m. to around 10:30 p.m., was moderated by members of the SA Congress’ Elections and Judiciary committee, led by Kenny Tran, a senior majoring in biology who serves as chair.

“The Debate itself allows candidates the perfect space to further explain their platform and answer any questions from the student body,” Tran wrote in an email. “As a student government, the SA helps represent and serve the needs of the students in any way possible. It is my hope that in present and future Candidate Debates, students will continue to participate in this event and learn more about the Candidates as well.”

The night kicked off with the candidates for council representative: Mackenzie Cooper, a junior majoring in philosophy, politics and law, and Irene Cui, a sophomore majoring in economics. Cui, who was originally removed from the ballot, was temporarily reinstated pending a ruling on a grievance she filed the night before and was allowed to participate.

Cooper, the incumbent, described her goals for student outreach, civic engagement and dialogue. She mentioned some initiatives she led as this year’s representative, including establishing an 11-member BU Council Committee with representatives of diverse areas of student life, and ones she plans to lead, like civic engagement roundtables, a peer mentorship program and semesterly town halls for students to share concerns.

Cui spoke next, offering her experience as a director of community relations in the SA president’s cabinet and regularly interacting with students and organizations. If elected, she said she plans to implement monthly checks on automated doors to address accessibility concerns and advocate for longer hours and healthier, more culturally representative dining hall options.

When asked about the biggest challenge the candidates may face in the upcoming year, Cooper identified uncertainty in higher education amid federal challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion and President Donald Trump’s calls to dismantle the Department of Education. Cui noted the same concern and said she would create a student-run committee to report discrimination and bias incidents.

Next was Atticus Fauci, the current vice president of programming and a junior majoring in economics, who is running unopposed. Fauci, who grew up in Binghamton, said his love for SA Programming Board events began before college. He highlighted achievements like reducing ticket prices for the NLE Choppa-headlined fall concert —which Fauci said was the highest-profiting fall concert since 2016 — and an increased digital media presence. He plans to form a separate committee that is “solely there for digital media events.”

Fauci is looking to move next year’s fall concert to a Friday and said that more than 80 percent of students who answered a recent survey agreed. He said that he has already begun speaking to administrators about the change.

Next, the vice president for multicultural affairs candidates were presented. Rome Maliha, a junior majoring in economics, said she would promote a culture of “communication, collaboration, connection and community” among multicultural organizations if elected. To achieve this, Maliha emphasized the importance of bringing multicultural organizations together and fostering collaboration and proposed launching a newsletter to share details regarding multicultural events with these organizations to boost attendance.

Jestina Tam, the chief of staff to the SA president and a junior majoring in biology, highlighted her student government experience and summarized her campaign platform as “A.C.T. Now.” If elected, Tam said she would promote events that “focus on empowering students,” create monthly pamphlets spreading information about multicultural events and look into commissioning a mural in the Union Undergrounds to celebrate diversity. She pledged to continue the VPMA’s peer mentorship program that builds relationships among students from different cultural backgrounds.

Kristina Donders, the speaker of the SA Congress and a junior double-majoring in mathematics and political science, and Lauren Wilner, the director of policy in the vice president for student success’ office and a junior double-majoring in environmental studies and philosophy, politics and law, then took the stage as the candidates for VPSS.

Donders, who worked in the VPSS office as secretary last year, said her main goal would be to “help students help students.” She focused on three components of her platform — mental health, civic engagement, and student outreach — and said she would establish peer support groups, create training for opioid overdose prevention and mental health first aid, and host a “complain to us” initiative to promote student involvement in the SA.

Wilner identified sustainability, support for students with disabilities and civil dialogue as her main goals if elected. She said she would continue progress on an initiative she started this year to reduce off-campus rent by 10 to 20 percent through community solar, along with creating a permanent Off Campus College Transport bus line to the Broome County Farmer’s Market and allowing students with disabilities to register for classes early through “ghost credits.”

In the VPF race, Gabriela Meza, a junior majoring in economics, is running unopposed. She discussed her experience as an assistant in the VPF office and her plans to improve communication, innovation, reliability and efficiency if elected. She said that she wants to create an anonymous student feedback system and use her assistants to “streamlining communication” with students.

The race for EVP pitted Nicholas Ginsberg, the chair of the SA Congress’ Financial Committee and a junior double-majoring in political science and sociology, against Batia Rabin, the incumbent and a junior double-majoring in philosophy, politics and law and women, gender and sexuality studies.

If elected, Ginsberg said he would “help bring organizational support and organizational efficiency” to student clubs and organizations. Ginsberg discussed the “two biggest missions” he would achieve if elected: expanding access to SA Rentables for organizations and allowing student clubs to select their preferred tabling section at events like UFEST and Club Carnival.

“Right now, the Student Association puts organizations into different categories on our end,” he explained. “I want to put that back into the student organizations. I want student organizations themselves to label themselves as multicultural or label themselves as special interests, label themselves as political.”

Rabin recounted their accomplishments as EVP, like creating a grant for student organizations to receive storage supplies, moving Club Carnival to a Sunday to accommodate observant Jewish students and creating a form for clubs to borrow SA equipment.

In response to a question on how the EVP will accommodate an increasing number of new student clubs, Rabin said that they are looking to expand storage space on campus. Ginsberg proposed creating a rotational storage locker for provisionally chartered organizations, which are not allocated space. Rabin rebutted by saying that some of these organizations have been given space under certain circumstances — to which Ginsberg replied that space is needed for all newly created clubs, “not just on a special case-by-case basis.”

Finally, the presidential candidates took the stage: McKenzie Skrastins, the incumbent and a junior double-majoring in mathematics and an individualized major in data science, and Joseph Kornblum, president of the Off Campus College Council and a junior majoring in business administration.

Kornblum spoke on the importance of professional development and said that he plans to work with pre-professional clubs across campus to prepare students for the workforce. He also said he plans to address student safety by creating a safety advisory board within the SA.

“I believe that I have the ability to bring Binghamton a fresh perspective as president,” Kornblum said. “I will build upon past administrations and work to give every student the best experience possible.”

Skrastins highlighted initiatives her office has worked on this year, including a collaboration with the VPMA office for the Multicultural Professional Development Summit and recycling regalia for graduating students. If reelected, she said she plans to update the club calendar to improve event space access and the OCCT website to give live updates when buses are full.

“I want to make sure that students feel that we’re a resource that they can utilize, not an organization that’s out to get them or an organization that doesn’t actually do anything,” Skrastins said. “But rather an organization, or specifically me, the president, the face, who’s here for them, wants to hear them out and work with them to find a solution to any problem and any controversy that may arise.”

The campuswide election will be held on B-Engaged on Thursday, March 27. The results are to be certified by the SA Congress at a meeting on April 1.