Sundin Music Hall was filled with something more than music on the night of Feb. 19— ideas for Hamline’s future.

Candidates for President and Vice President of HUSC Jazmine Ngwu and Emily Lall, both sophomores, won the coin toss for the debate, giving them the opportunity to read their opening statement first. In their opening statement, they highlighted the three main points of their platform: community, access and communication.

Opposing candidates sophomores Kaia Zeigler and Cecelia Miller noted in their opening statement that their platform focuses on accessibility, transparency and equity.

“We believe that transparency, specifically between students in the administration, is key in making sure that HUSC serves its student body effectively,” Zeigler said.

The debate continued with a variety of questions. Both teams had two minutes to respond to each. Throughout the night, there were some notable moments from each team.

When the candidates were asked who they are inspired by at Hamline, Miller responded by announcing that it was her running mate, Zeigler.

Budgeting and funds came up several times throughout the evening. Miller stated that if elected, they would guarantee another year of funding to the Feed Your Brain Campaign. Zeigler and Miller want to spread the word on how to access funding to be more open and accessible to students. Both teams are looking to increase conference funds, funding to students and organizations in need.

While campaigning, both teams came across students who did not know what HUSC was. As a part of Ngwu and Lall’s platform, they decided to use this experience to focus on making sure students no longer have to say “I don’t know” to whether they know what their campus resources are.

“No student should not know what student congress is,” Ngwu said. “We want to make sure that every student knows that HUSC is for them and a resource for them.”

Lall spoke on wanting to utilize videos and social media to give people more knowledge and resources about Hamline.

The hour-long debate received a positive response from those who came to support.
“I think the debate went really well. Both candidate teams did amazing. They had great opening and closing responses,” junior and current HUSC Vice President Dieu Do said.

But there is still some curiosity as to what the specifics of the plans are for the two teams.

“They’re both very evenly matched,” senior and HUSC Student Organizations Chair Ray Doss said. “But I would love to hear more tangible, concrete things instead of big ideas.”

All the candidates felt good about the evening and remained cordial to one another.

“I think it went really well, I think all of us are great candidates,” Zeigler said. “I would feel comfortable with any of us as leader, and we’ll work closely with Jazz and Emily. If they’re elected or if we’re elected, we want to work closely with them.”

The feeling was mutual from the opposing team.

“I am proud of how Jazz and I did, and Cece and Kaia. It was great to hear what they had to say,” Lall said. “I’m excited for the next steps and going into the voting process.”

Candidates still have time to continue campaigning and spreading their initiatives throughout campus until the end of the voting process.

Voting began at 8 a.m. on Feb. 25 and will conclude at 8 p.m. Feb. 27. Students will be able to vote through a Google form that will be sent to their Hamline email.