On Monday, March 28, University of Maine Student Government Inc. (UMSG) held a debate in the North Pod of the Memorial Union for two candidates for the soon vacant UMSG Inc. presidency. The two candidates told students how they plan to tackle important issues on campus.
Kevin Bois, a third-year mechanical engineering student and Amanda Mancheva, a third-year psychology and political science student, answered questions for The Maine Campus’ editor-in-chief Anthony Panciocco regarding multiple facets of being the lead executive of UMSG.
Around 40 students, many dressed formally, attended the event. Both Bois and Mancheva said that they considered UMaine to be a place of surprising significance in their life.
“I want a chance to give back to the University of Maine community,” Bois said. “This place has a special place in my heart. I love every bit of involvement I’ve had in my undergraduate career.”
Mancheva, who is originally from Bulgaria, said that she wanted to return the student government to its previous state of standing.
“I found this to be a second home to me,” Mancheva said. “Student government is not to its former glory, [when] so many people wanted to be involved in the organization.”
Bois focused his ongoing platform at the debate on promoting links between the multiple departments around the university and making everyone work together instead of keeping their distance.
“We have a lot of departments that work independently from each other,” Bois said. “It’s important that we bridge the gap to provide the best undergraduate experience for our students. Moving forward into next year, I want to continue to break down those walls.”
Mancheva spoke about promoting transparency in student government, as many people on campus are not able to see the explicit details of how the organization operates.
“I want to promote more transparency,” Mancheva said. “People don’t know how big of a role student government plays on campus. Pretty much everyone receives funding from student government.”
Voting was held the following day with physical ballots, as well as voting on First Class. The results of the election were not available to the media, but Jaymi Thibault, the Fair Election Practices Commission Chair at UMSG, said that the result will be notarized on April 4.
