Student Union presidential candidates applauded butv10’s efforts to record and publicize the presidential debates for the first time in the station’s two-year operation, a move butv10 said was aimed at increasing voter turnout.
The efforts came as the Student Union Elections Commission’s pushed to increase student participation in the election, which drew a little more than 3,000 votes, and butv10’s attempt to branch out and connect with other campus groups, butv10 General Manager Meredith Rizocki said.
“[We’re] giving people in the community an opportunity to know what’s going on,” Rizocki said. “The website is our portal to the community.”
Although only about 40 people attended the March 31 Union presidential debate, the online video allowed students who were not able to attend view it.
“It allows students who weren’t able to able to attend to go online and see it,” current Union Vice President and former presidential candidate John Dallas Grant said. “Even if one extra person saw it online, then it was worth it.”
Grant, a College of Arts and Sciences junior, lost the presidential election to Matt Seidel and his New Deal slate in last week’s elections. Seidel beat Grant by 128 votes and the rest of his picked up every other executive board position.
Rizocki, a College of Communication senior, said the video went online April 7, the first day of voting on the Student Link and stayed active until April 12, one day after voting ended. Butv10 also taped the results announcement and posted those videos online as well.
Seidel said he thought taping was a positive addition to the election process as well.
“I thought it was a great way to inform the students,” Seidel, a CAS sophomore, said.
While the debate served as a “launching pad” for “energizing” the campaign and to promote student outreach, Seidel said he thought there should have been more than one and the Elections Commission should have publicized them more.
“The debate was an opportunity for me to reinforce that,” Seidel said. “I feel like this is a very special election. Next year is make-or-break for the Union.”
Former Union presidential candidate Jeanne Mansfield said she liked the idea of taping the debate and posting the video online because it helped educate those who could not attend the debates in person.
“It felt very professional. It made the debate feel more important,” Mansfield, a CAS sophomore, said. “I think it definitely helps me because it got my message out there.”
Rizocki said butv10 did advertised only through a Facebook group and a mass email to students on the station’s mailing list.
“That’s a start, but at a university of this size it’s hard to break through that anonymity,” said University Professors Program graduate student Alex Zito.