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Students gathered in Rudder Auditorium Monday evening to view a debate between the seven students competing to be student body president.
For the first time the Memorial Student Center (MSC) Council and Election Commission worked with leaders of different student organizations to create questions for the candidates to answer, said Daniel Nevares, a junior psychology major.
Representatives from organizations such as the Business Student Council, MSC Council and Corps of Cadets posed questions for the seven potential presidents that addressed topics such as Vision 2020, keeping the Aggie spirit alive and interaction between international students and Americans.
Nevares said he attended the debate to learn the different strategies the candidates had for problems at Texas A&M.
"Student body presidents want to get a lot of the same things done, and here you can see the different approaches on the different topics," Nevares said.
While construction is expected to cause problems concerning campus parking lots, solutions must be found, said Nic Taunton, a junior finance major.
"The important part that happens here is that we find out which students are being displaced and provide power for the students," Taunton said.
The main problem concerning parking is the unused parking spaces for 24-hour-parking zones, said Blake Adami, a junior political science major. Those spaces should become 12-hour-reserved parking to allow students the opportunity to park there in the evenings, he said.
Because the Bryan City Council has proposed a potential change to limit the number of unrelated roommates allowed to live together, the Blinn and A&M Student Governments should work together to stop the bill from passing, said Jennifer Faulkner, a senior English major.
To combat the proposed change, students must be more conscious of their behavior, said Will Hailey, a senior history major.
"If we're going to be good members of the community, we have to make sure that students here on campus know that we have to be good neighbors," Hailey said.
To make the A&M campus a more diverse place, Aaron Barton, a junior management major, emphasized the importance of recruiting minority students early in their academic careers.
"We need to let them know that Texas A&M is indeed friendly to minority populations," he said.
In order to better provide a diverse atmosphere the student body president must have a strong cabinet, said Brian Blackwell, a senior management major. Making a change will be a long-term commitment, but it will go more smoothly if the right people are appointed, he said.
While the return of on-campus Bonfire does not seem likely in the near future, Aggies should support it, said Jared McNeely, a senior mechanical engineering major. It will help foster parts of the Aggie spirit that seem to be declining, he said.
Hailey, however, said Aggies could regain some of the lost spirit by encouraging more students to say "howdy" to one another.
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