ASUN candidates debate sustainability on campus

At the second debate for the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska elections, the executive board candidates focused on sustainability and diversity on campus.

The debate was moderated by the Environmental Resource Center, the Progressive Student Coalition and the Queer Student Alliance.

The first question concerned sustainability and what the parties would do to make the campus more sustainable.

FUSION's presidential candidate Reid DeSpiegelaere, a junior history major, said the party would like to expand what ASUN could do with the Athletic Department, saying there could be recycling after more sports events, such as volleyball games, and not just before and after football games.

He also cited FUSION's carpool pass plan, which would allow communal parking for students.

"We're the only party that has a mainstream platform that is geared around sustainability," he said.

Kiana Mathew, a sophomore agricultural sciences major and the internal vice presidential candidate for FUSION, also talked about drafting a green constitution that would create a custom and tailor-made recycling program for each building on campus, so students can have better accessibility.

RENEW's presidential candidate Cori Curtis, a senior international relations and political science major, said, "You have to launch a cultural movement that is launched from your peers."

The candidates in the RENEW Party have proven that sustainability was more than just a catch phrase, he said.

It is getting the students behind a common vision and working tangibly towards those goals, Curtis said. Curtis continued that he, along with his two candidates for external and internal vice president Sammy Nabulsi, a junior political science major and Katherine White, a junior music major, can make the university a leader in sustainability.

What sets RENEW apart from the other parties is that it wants to get one common message across about sustainability on campus, he said.

The presidential candidate for N VISION Justin Solomon, a junior family sciences major, emphasized the need for sustainable language in the project contracts UNL makes with outside businesses.

"I would like to point out that we're the only party that seems to think sustainable language in university contracts is a good thing," he said.

He also spoke out against FUSION's carpool platform.

"If we're going to look at other carpool systems, we also have to point out that students who are co-habitating here at the university will not be able to share the same carpool permit," he said. "That's a problem."

FUSION's external vice presidential candidate Emily Schlichting, a junior political science major, rebutted these remarks. "I would like to see the research and the rules that state that people who live together cannot share a carpool pass," she said, "because the one we modeled ours off of does allow that."

Currently, the university does not have employee plus one benefits, and the parties debated that.