URI Student Senate presidential tickets go head-to-head on issues in debate

02/25/09 - Student Senate Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates sparred over major issues, including arming campus police and the orange sticker policy during last night's two-hour senate debate.The debate was held in the Memorial Union Atrium for the presidential and vice presidential nominees of the senate.

Current Senate Vice President David Bedard and Senate Treasurer Vidhi Shah debated against Cultural Affairs Chairman Maxwell Adepoju and Student Organization Advisory Committee Chair Amanda Clarke. They presented their future goals and opinions on current issues for University of Rhode Island to a crowd of about 40 people.

One of the more contentious topics included the current discussion as to whether URI police officers should be able to carry guns.

Bedard said he believes campus police should be armed, but with limits. One limit would be that only certain officers should be able to carry guns at certain times, or that guns should be kept in the police station and not on regular campus patrols. He said he did not want to rush judgment on the issue, but at this point he believes arming police in some form should be enacted.

"In my opinion, they are doing . pretty much the same job as the South Kingstown Police officers do, and [South Kingstown police] are armed," Bedard said. "It does not necessarily have to be a . firearm, but we can't send these officers into a situation where we may perceive it to be harmless and it turns violent with nothing at all on them. Cops aren't just whipping their guns out for no reason, they are protecting themselves from people that have weapons of their own."

Bedard said such a situation has not been an issue in past years at URI, but that one may never know when a student could snap and commit a violent act necessitating the use of potential lethal force.

"It's a very difficult decision," he said. "You have to really hash out all the pros and cons to it before you rush to judgment, and make sure everyone is involved in a decision of that magnitude."

Adepoju said he is against arming campus police with lethal weapons. He said there are weapons widely available to police forces that are less lethal, like beanbag guns and stun guns, that would be adequate for the university's needs.

"I do believe that university police should be protected, but I do not think they should be armed," he said. "If we use the money to further protect the URI police, I would agree to that. Maybe more bulletproofing or whatever type of armor they would need, but for the most part, I think it's a little extreme to give them the authority to carry lethal weapons."

Adepoju said that South Kingstown officers have to deal with a much larger variety of people that are more likely to be armed and therefore cause harm to other citizens, or to the officers themselves.

"For the most part, we are all educated individuals at this university," he said. "I mean when intoxicated, we're something else, but mostly we are all educated college students, and I feel like the need of police to carry guns around to prove something to us, is not necessary."

The candidates also discussed Narragansett's Unruly Gatherings Ordinance, more commonly known to students as the Orange Sticker policy. Both presented how they planned to tackle the problem, and also addressed the pending lawsuit the senate has filed with the town.

Bedard said he and Shah have been working with Senate President Tom Ahrens and lawyers to give the issue a fair trial.

"All of my work on the orange sticker has taken place this year," Bedard said. "I have been to a few Narragansett Coalition meetings, and what students need to understand is that there are a lot of residents in Narragansett who are willing to work with us and there are some that are not."

He added there is a need to sit down with Narragansett residents and make it clear to them that students are not just complaining that their right to party has been taken away, and that students are residents nine months out of the year and are of equal value to the community.

"That lawsuit will not be done by the time president Ahrens' term is up, so we need to make sure it keeps going and sees its day in court," Bedard said.

Adepoju said while he has not had much direct experience with the issue, this year he has been researching it with his runningmate and Ahrens. He said Clarke is going to represent the student body as a plaintiff in the case when it goes to court.

The candidates agreed on the way the athletic department's handled budget cuts last year. Instead of decreasing each varsity sport's budget collectively, the department decided to terminate the women's field hockey, gymnastics and men's swimming and tennis.

"[The senate] agreed that it was better to cut teams, rather than an across the board cut because that would hurt athletics as a whole," Bedard said. "It was unfair to the teams that got cut, but we are taking steps to ensure that we will not lose these teams."

Adepoju said while cuts are sometimes unavoidable, the manner in which they are handled could be improved.

"I feel like my runningmate has been doing a great job in recognizing as many club sports as possible this year," he said. "I believe we are going to continue to do so."

While both candidates skirted the question on why their opponent would be a bad choice for president, they both asserted their qualifications over the other.