With the cold weather outside and less than a week to go before Northern Iowa’s Student Government elections, NISG candidates for the senate, president and vice president continued their campaign in Tuesday night’s debate. 

In the Maucker Union Coffeehouse Feb. 17, the candidates used their experiences in leadership and time at UNI to solidify their qualifications for becoming the next president and vice president of NISG. 

“All of the activities I have been involved in at UNI have really prepared me,” said Katie Evans, junior political science major and presidential candidate.

Moderated by Jordan Adam, senior communication major, the debate kicked off with candidates running for senate seats. The senate portion of the debate was allotted 40 minutes; after a brief intermission, the presidential and vice presidential candidates took the stage.

Each ticket was allowed opening remarks, first from the vice presidential candidates, then the presidential candidates.

In the question and answer part of the debate, candidates addressed issues such as what they are passionate about, and what the hardest plank to accomplish in their platform will be.

For Jared and Tanner, their most difficult plank will be engaging students. In order to accomplish this, they plan to create an inter-club council where they will invite up to three representatives from each student organization to meetings where they will collaborate with the leaders. 

On the flip side, Katie and Renae see updating My UNIverse as their biggest challenge, as it will take several departments to pitch in, but with a confidence in their work ethic, Beard believes their challenges can be tackled.

“We both have really diligent work ethics,” Beard said.

The Q and A was then opened up to the public. Current NISG Speaker Eric Boisen asked the candidates, if this was an “all-or-nothing” situation; meaning, if either ticket loses, will they still be involved with NISG? Evans, Beard and Heitz plan to stay involved in NISG, and Bernhard said he will remain involved with other student organizations. 

Evans briefly talked about creating a Women’s Center on campus and using resources already available to make part of their platform a reality. 

Per Heitz and Bernhard’s platform, Emma Wright, sophomore marketing major, favored the tickets’ plans to expand on Panther Fridays.

“I just think that would offer students opportunities to ask questions,” Wright said. “It’s getting to more places.”

Election Commissioner Nathan Davis, senior psychology major, thought the debate went well, as each of the candidates engaged with the questions and the students dug into their platforms.

“I really thought that the students weren’t afraid to pull out some punches and grill the candidates,” Davis said.

Voting for NISG candidates, both senate and presidential, will begin Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 7 a.m. on MyUNIverse and will close Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m.