Raising student awareness of services, appropriate club funding and the proposed recreational and health center were the hot button issues of the ASI nomination debate Monday, March 16 at the Malcolm X Plaza.

The nominees that spoke on the panel represented the two parties running: "The Slate: Diversity United" and the "Student Organization in Action", more often referred to as S.O.A. Both groups received their opportunity to explain their platform and answer questions to the people gathered at the plaza, though the audio team was very precise when cutting their mics at the exact moment their time limit expired.

"I am hoping the students re-elect me so I can continue my hard work," said incumbent ASI President, Natalie Franklin running with Diversity United.

Presidential hopeful with S.O.A., Cobe Obiesie, expressed his hopes to get the current ASI board out of office to allow new people in office to create greater transparency.

"ASI needs to be held accountable and students need to be aware of where their money is being allocated. I don't see that happening," said Obiesie.

The debate was set up so that the emcee poses questions to each of the people running for the top four offices and then allows each of the candidates pose a question to their opponent, with time left for rebuttals.

Obiesie asked Franklin about whether she would be able to look out for the best interest of students despite her support for the recreational center that may raise student fees by $200.

After critiquing the way Obiesie framed his question, Franklin responded, "I am in support of the students having a choice for a rec center, and they will be able to vote in April whether they support it."

The discussion turned to the money allocated to the survey on how students felt about the idea of adding a recreational center.

"The survey was biased," said Obiesie. He went on to say that the people who conducted the survey where the same that were asked to design the center.

Both candidates for president agreed, however, that the ASI needs to be more present and raise awareness of the services and opportunities that are on campus and funded by student dollars.

The crowd added to the heated discussion between the candidates by cheering and heckling in the clearly segregated crowd - nearly half where carrying signs for SOA or Diversity United publicity.

The next big roar, from the fluctuating crowd of more than 100, came when the V.P. of Finance nominees spoke about club funding. Ruben Uribe from SOA demanded more funding and efforts to stop unused money from going into the reserve account.

"The board currently doesn't ask the questions that need to be asked," said Uribe. "The current V.P. has been cutting funding for clubs."

The incumbent V.P. of Finance, Darlington Nwaokoro, replied that the funding for clubs couldn't remain the same as they have in the past because of the state of the ASI bank account.

As the panel debate rapped up, the mic was opened up to the audience to ask questions of the ASI hopefuls.

One student asked why the money used to put forth the recreation center survey couldn't go toward the library that they need, to which Franklin said that the students were misinformed and didn't understand how funding worked.

"ASI isn't really listening to us when we ask for money to be used where we want," said 19-year-old Sharim Hannegan, a La Raza Studies student. "I understand that the state froze the money for the library but I think that the ASI is using emergency funds for things that aren't emergencies."

Other students were surprised that they were able to ask improptu questions of people that will control nearly $3.5 million dollars of their student fees.

"It was interesting that they opened up for questions. I thought some students had great questions for the current ASI members," said Lindsy Mennet, 20, a political science major.

Obiesie and Franklin both commented on how they felt the debate went but had different takes on the event.

"I think that the we needed it to be longer to give our full responses," said Obiesie. "There should be one of these every month. Maybe there will be if we are elected."

"I think it went really well," said Franklin. "But the other slate took the fun out of it. They had SOA members ask questions that were biased."

Elections are scheduled to run from March 16 to March 20.

For more information about the people running you can check out their respective Facebook accounts.

Students can vote at the ASI Web site.