By Вen Li
What do sex, beer and tuition have in common? All were topics of debate at the recent Students’ Union by-election forum
Events Commissioner candidates Scott Barrington and Ian Thorner squared off before a small crowd last Thurs., Oct. 4. Both Thorner, a third-year Biology student, and Barrington, a second-year Pre-management student, hope to fill the single Events Commissioner position left vacant from SU General Elections last March.
"You should vote for me because I have experience planning events," said Thorner during the forum. "I did Snow Pants Day last year and I want to keep it going. A good way of doing that would be to become an Events Commissioner."
While opponent Barrington lacks the same experience, he expressed strong ideas for the upcoming year.
"I’m going to work really, really, really, really [sic] hard to try to decrease apathy and to get a lot more people at [Dinos] athletic events because we need them," said Barrington. "I really don’t want to see any students suffer from burnout. Once we get to final exams, I’m going to have a lot more events just to relieve stress."
Both candidates placed a high priority on student safety at future events.
"Drinking and driving is a major problem in Alberta," said Thorner. "We want to cut down on that on campus."
In contrast, Barrington would like to see cheaper drinks after Dinos games and encouraged other forms of entertainment.
"Safe sex should always be promoted," he said. "It’s very, very important to people at university."
Tuition was also a common concern. Both Thorner and Barrington described plans to fight tuition increases through awareness events and participation in the Students’ Legislative Council. Neither candidate, however, has ever attended a session of SLC.
"I’m a very, very busy man," explained Barrington. "[But] I’m quitting my job if I win this."
"I’ve also been very busy," explained Thorner. "A lot of the time, you don’t know what’s going to be discussed [at SLC] so you don’t have any reason for going."
In response, Vice-President Events Chris Kerr pointed out that the SLC agenda is publicly posted every Friday and questioned the candidates’ time-management abilities.
"If you don’t have time to attend an SLC meeting to see what it’s all about, what makes you think you’ll have the time to do it as an Events Commissioner?" he asked.
After the event, however, Kerr was satisfied with the forum and the candidates.
"They had good answers and good ideas," he said. "It will be a good race with two strong candidates. In terms of apathy for this election, I want at least the same turnout we had for the last by-election despite the fact that there’s only two candidates in this one."
The by-election runs from Oct. 10-12.