The candidates for the only contested race in the Otterbein University Student Government campaign week summarized their campaigns and answered questions at an event in the Campus Center on March 8.
One of the campaigns consists of Bethany Blinsky, a third year philosophy and social change and public policy double major, for president and her running mate Brenna Helm, a third year psychology and sociology double major, for vice president. The opposing ticket consists of Alex Scotton, a second year psychology major, for president and Tyler Baker, a third year human resources management major, for vice president. Both campaigns are running on a platform of improving student inclusivity across campus.
Blinsky and Helm are running on a platform of several issues.
First, Blinsky said that she and Helm aim to address student satisfaction with administrative decisions. In her speech, Blinsky stated, “I often hear my peers raise questions or concerns that they believe the administration will not answer or account for. They claim that the student government model is too confusing and that their opinion doesn’t matter anyways.”
Blinksy said that both she and Helm find this issue very important and “want to make sure that Otterbein students know that their opinions, questions and concerns are valid.”
Blinsky also advocated for increasing student participation in extracurricular activities and organizations in order to continue “Otterbein’s philanthropy of volunteer work and service.” She stated, “As president and vice president, we want to aid and advocate for such community outreach in any way that we can.”
Blinsky and Helm stated that they would advocate for improving the inclusivity of students of all identities. They plan to do so by ensuring that the campus is aware of non-binary pronouns, adding a Free Zone and Team Consent component to the FYS program and ensuring that transgender and non-binary students feel comfortable using the health center.
Scotton and Baker are running on a platform of primarily improving the OUSG’s outreach to students across the board. Scotton summarized his campaign saying “Your voice matters. We want to hear what you have to say, and do everything in our power to act on your behalf. This is what we believe student government is about.”
Scotton went on to outline several ideas to better inform and involve students. These included creating an OUSG YouTube channel as a conduit for information from student senators, holding open forums at least twice a semester for students to voice their opinions, questions, concerns and to improve athletic attendance with events such as tailgates and raffles.
After the speeches the floor was opened to questions from the audience. The first was directed toward both candidates, “If you could only address one issue what would it be and why?”
Blinsky had the first opportunity to answer, stating that she would strive to improve respect for marginalized identities by advocating for the elimination of racist remarks and for professors to be more aware of their students’ preferred pronouns.
Scotton then answered, stating, “the thing on our platform that we want to focus on the most is providing students with more opportunities to have their voices heard.”
There were several questions from current members of the OUSG asking the candidates how they would improve meetings and work with the current structures of student government despite none of the candidates for president or vice president having prior OUSG experience.
Both candidates responded that they would aim to inform students that meetings of the OUSG are open to the public.
Blinsky expressed that both she and Helm are somewhat aware of the current issues and structures within student government, and specifically remarked on the upcoming technology fee and potential changes to the university’s alcohol policy.
Scotton stated that while he and Baker are not currently familiar with the structures of student government they would speak to current senators if they are elected to familiarize themselves.
Elections for the next term of the Otterbein University Student Government opened on Wednesday March 9 and will run until 5 p.m. on Friday, March 11 with a ballot which was emailed to all students on Wednesday morning.
