Wednesday's GPSA presidential debate between Lissa Knudsen and B. Lee Drake centered on issues from undergraduate relations to community outreach.
About a dozen people crowded into the lounge at El Centro de la Raza in Mesa Vista Hall for the NMPIRG-sponsored debate, but only one voting member of the graduate student population stayed for the entire dialogue.
Drake and Knudsen began the debate by speaking about the issues they hope to address as GPSA president.
Drake said he is concerned with improving relations with ASUNM and the undergraduate population through internships and joint policy councils.
"We need to create an infrastructure way of dealing with ASUNM - not just president to president, but senator to representative," he said. "If we don't have this infrastructural relationship, we're going to work in different directions and oftentimes in opposite directions, and that's going to send a clear message to the regents and the president that the students don't have their act together."
Drake also said he would revamp the process through which research grants are awarded within GPSA to make it easier for graduate students to apply.
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Knudsen said that, as president, she would make it easier for graduate students to enter the work force.
"My No. 1 issue is to create a network so that we can get graduate and professional students placed into local, high-paying jobs after they graduate," she said.
Also, Knudsen said she would work to improve financial transparency at GPSA by webcasting meetings and asking for input from the public at the beginning of meetings.
Danny Hernandez, uncontested candidate for GPSA council chairman, said he noticed a personality difference between Knudsen and Drake.
"If you're looking for aggressive, no-holds-barred, 'this is what has to get done,' it's Lissa," Hernandez said. "On the other hand - Lee - he's not going to burn any bridges. There's value to that, too."
Max Fitzpatrick, a member of GPSA, said the debate didn't help him choose between the two qualified candidates but that he was looking for a "no-nonsense" GPSA president.
"They both seemed like really good candidates, so this didn't help me select one or at least eliminate one," he said. "I think the best way someone can be president is by being a no-holds-barred fighter, feared and respected by the administration, that has good ties with the Legislature and the city council."
Knudsen said she was apprehensive about what she sees as complacency on Drake's part.
"That's one of the things that's sort of concerning to me about candidate Drake's platform is the last administration we had - I went into it thinking our executive was going to fight, but he had an entirely different approach," she said. "I'm concerned that if candidate Drake were elected, the same kind of thing would happen."
Drake said that, amid University strife, it's important for GPSA to create benevolent relationships.
"Regardless of what we do, we need to build bridges where we can build them," he said. "We can't be na've, thinking everyone's going to be our best friend, but thinking everyone is our enemy is na've, too. We have to think we can work with them."
Knudsen became involved in politics after she spearheaded a University campaign for better child care facilities, and University child care continues to be a main point in her platform.
"Right now, we have over 500 people waiting in line for the Children's Campus," she said. "If we actually had accessible child care for everyone who needed it, more people could come to graduate school. Graduate and professional students are more likely to be parents and have families."
See Drake's platform at Web.me.com/thalesian
See Knudsen's platform at GpsaPres.blogspot.com
Voting will take place April 6-9.
