SBP Candidates Debate COVID-19 Policies, Diversity and King's Tradition in First Debate
Screenshot from King’s email announcing SBP platforms
Tuesday’s Student Body Presidential debate featuring Catherine Blanco, Victoria Fisher and Brent Buterbaugh marked the first major campaign event in the presidential race. The topics of debate ranged from COVID-19 policy, diversity in the King’s community, the importance of athletics and incorporating remote students into more events.
The three candidates opened the debate with their initial speeches. Fisher spoke first on the topic of unity which has been central to her campaign so far.
“I think we need to start having conversations that are otherwise uncomfortable, things that we don’t really want to do necessarily, but I think we should start fostering that because I think that our campus is actually capable of it,” Fisher said.
Blanco’s opening speech focused on her achievements as a college student from a Latino family.
“I’m here in this country because two generations ago, my grandmother came with a hundred bucks and a second grade education. She came here, because she wanted her daughter, my mother, to get an education,” Blanco said. “I came to King’s for an education, but I stayed at King’s because I believe it has a distinct identity in culture.”
Buterbaugh, who currently serves the council as Director of Student Organizations, shared what he loves about King’s with the audience.
“There are a couple of things I really love about King’s. I love the mission, I love the city of New York, but most of all, I love the students of King’s and this is why I want to represent you,” Buterbaugh said.
Proceeding on to the general questions for the debate, the first question asked the candidates what they think falls under the jurisdiction of SBP.
The candidates agreed that the SBP is first and foremost a leader and advocate of the student body, but also serves as a direct connection between the student body and the administration. Fisher stated that the SBP has the advantage to “work with people who are behind the actual mechanics of the school,” while Buterbaugh said that “it’s also important that the student body president understands their role in elevating the concerns of students to staff and administration.”
With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many students are eager to return to the normalcy they had before. Remote students have also voiced their concerns about feeling excluded from the King’s community during this time. An important observation made during the debate was that only seniors have experienced a full, normal year at King’s.
Blanco said that her course of action in dealing with the restrictions that COVID-19 has posed is to continue with King’s and house traditions, even if they are scaled back.
“There’s this problem we see at King’s every once in a while and it’s a lack of writing things down,” Blanco said. “I will make it a priority to have some sort of list as to what King’s traditions are. Traditions will be lost if we don’t keep them going.”
Fisher agreed, saying, “We have lost sight of our small events. My idea would be to foster a competition amongst orgs that will inspire people to be more social.”
Buterbaugh, who hosted a virtual town hall on Monday night exclusively for remote students, expanded upon these ideas.
“We have to really emphasize casual events. We have to be able to figure out things that we can do in the park, like ultimate frisbee,” Buterbaugh said. “Also, I think it’s really important to have events geared toward remote students.”
Remote students have felt the toll of being removed from King’s during this time. Traditionally, King’s has always left space for students to voice their opinions. Buterbaugh’s plan for including remote students’ voices in the decision making process is to continue with the community updates and to have a designated person as a connection point between the cabinet and administration for remote students.
Fisher argued that she will use her role as SBP to improve the draw to campus, so that less students will opt to go remote in the fall. She said that “King’s needs to be a place worth taking a risk for” and hopes to see more students back on campus next year.
On the topic of cultivating diversity, Blanco spoke first, with an important point on how house namesakes play into diversity at King’s.
“I want to prioritize individuals and individuals have very diverse experiences here at King’s,” Blanco said. “I know a big thing for me, something that changed the way I see King’s and something that affected me a lot was the house namesake decision.”
Blanco’s platform states that she will “support the formal process by which incoming students can switch Houses based on conscience and by which Houses can retire their namesake if they so choose.”
Last year, the conversation of House namesakes was a hot-button issue when a petition called for the removal of Raegen as a House namesake. The college decided to retain the namesake.
Both Fisher and Buterbaugh agreed that diversity in the King’s community goes beyond race. Both candidates plan to foster diversity in ways other than just race and encourage diverse leadership. Buterbaugh plans on being very intentional with who he picks to be a part of his cabinet.
“I want to set an example by putting together as diverse a cabinet as I can. Across majors, across race, across different interests and different backgrounds,” Buterbaugh said.
Fisher responded with an unorthodox plan to pair houses and orgs together.
“Your point is exactly why I want to have the houses and orgs together. It would be weird. Their interests aren't all together the same. Pairing the finance club with a house that has predominantly MCA majors, I think that’d be fabulous,” Fisher said.
She also gave further examples of what this would look like, with those examples being pairing The Table with a mostly white house or the EST with the house that placed worst in writing during Interregnum.
Among questions sent in by the student body, the debate over athletics seemed to be the most important for the candidates.
Buterbaugh’s platform encourages students to attend games and advocates more funding for athletics. During the debate, Blanco raised the point that games are a way for students to showcase school spirit and have fun.
In closing, the three candidates emphasized the hardships this pandemic has brought on academics at King’s and explained the unity necessary to bring normalcy back.
The next SBP debate “Bonanza” will take place on Friday, Feb. 19, at 12:15 p.m. in the City Room and over Zoom.