Agnello not participating in today’s SGA presidential debate

I don’t understand the problem. So what if SGA is running the elections. The questions are predetermined and each party has an opportunity to answer the questions asked. This is a public debate that will be open for all to see, so why is Even so worried? How bias can things really be? SGA is also running the elections and so far they seem to be running fair to both sides…if anything Evan has been getting away with a lot more with some of this fliers featuring the other candidates pictures without their permission. Evan needs to stop all of his complaining and crying and stand up and debate like a real leader would. He wants to be the leader of CMU student body but he goes running scared crying foul because he thinks things won’t be “fair”. Come on! If he can’t even stand up in a debate and state is position how can we expect Evan to stand up for the CMU student body. I don’t want a president that throws in the towel because he thinks things are not fair. I want a president that is going to fight for their position no matter the odds against them. To me it just seems that Evan is running scared and is afraid that he is going to lose the debate and this is his way of getting out of it.

my vote is for a president that has a voice and is not scared of a fight…

In my past associations with Evan Agnello, I know that his heart and mind are in the right place. I feel his frustration with the shameless smear campaign that his opponents and the entrenched interests in SGA have engaged in. Its tough to go up against the mud throwing machine, especially when the claims are false and the powers that be are in your corner.

I support Agnello, and as an alumni who has seen the joke of SGA operate for no other reason than to keep their stipends for 4 years, I urge all fair minded students to vote for Evan Agnello for SGA President.

-Richard

It seems that everyone operating the election or the debate has some sort of bias towards one candidate or another. Why cant the CM-Life moderate the debate and have them pick questions for the parties to answer. I do not think that is an unfair task considering SGA is the ones TAKING the stipends from students and are now scared of losing the money. All these SGA people do nothing until they are in threat of losing their money that they are stealing from students.

SGA is Shameless. Lets have someone NEW in office

After watching the first interview by Mouzourakis, it seemed her and her VP could not agree on one question. They were constantly contradicting each other and promised a lot of stuff that was outside of SGA’s abilities. When students think about who they are voting for they need to think about do these kids know what they are talking about. It is clear that the Mouzourakis does not when she doesn’t even know where SGA funding is coming from. SCARY the current VP doesn’t know where SGA funding comes from. Seems like that is what is is PAID to do. PAID . . . Ridiculous.

Nick,

What do you not understand about the fact that the SGA executive council is not paid. The money, which the other ticket has given the true amount, is merely a stipend which allows students of all economic backgrounds to take a leadership role on campus, not only the rich who will take everything for granted.

I find it pathetic that all you can come up with is this assumption that they are being paid, when everything you say has no factual truth behind it.

The Agnello campaign is the one doing the smearing of the other. Nothing that has been released by the Mouzourakis/Breed campaign has ever in an manner been negative against their opponent.

Its a shame that Agnello can’t even speak for himself that he has to use this “Lazarus” character rather than speaking on his own behalf. Agnello needs to step up and be a man and speak for himself not through some front, or is this front the one who will be calling all of the shots if Agnello were to be voted in? From what I’ve heard around the campus, Lazarus isn’t even eligible to be on the ballot because he doesn’t have the GPA to do so, seeing that he still has freshman status after what two years?

I am sick of this $14,000 claim that people keep spouting about…that is simply not the truth. In response to all those that are saying that the SGA is just greedy greedy greedy. The president and vp get credits for their work with SGA that come from the presidents office from private donations NOT student funds. This fund was created decades ago. And now there is a problem with it? This is given for the amount of time that the Pres/VP work on things for SGA. They put lots and lots of hours into work. This is their “payment” not cash.

And the stipend are minimum wage for 6 hours a week. For the eboard. The eboard does more then just 6 hours a week for SGA. They are getting paid small amounts to do a JOB…yes a JOB. It is work, they are working. This small amount they receive was put in to place to allow those that do not have a lot of money or resources a bit of money to live off of. Because many people that hold the positions would not have time to hold an actual job and be on SGA as well. This money gives people a chance to serve the school and get involved. Why should only those with money that dont have to work or get a job be able to take SGA leadership roles. I know of some of the eboard that use that money to pay their heat or buy food b/c they dont have any other income.

SGA does not write their checks nor do they decided how much they get paid. All of that is through the school. SGA is not just taking students money and taking trips to Vegas or anything crazy. They get paid by the school a SMALL amount for working hard and long hours serving the CMU campus.

The total is only $9,174 split among 7 so that is $1,310…that is what eboard gets. In one year. Most people can make that in a few weeks with a real job. But no lets continue to the complain about the little money that is being given to those working hard for CMU. Or better yet lets make it so only people with money can take leadership roles…no thanks!

This greedy greedy greedy idea can just stop already and maybe we can find so real issues on campus to talk about…

It sounds like some of the commentators on this article are scared to lose all the money they are stealing from the students.

I think they are proving that the Mouzourakis campaign is only full of nothing but mudslingers not addressing real issues and just personalities. Shame on their campaign supporters SHAME

Nick…really with the money thing? Come on…move on we have already addressed that issue… And the mud slinging is coming from Evans side. Show me one example of something Brittney/Dave has said about Evan or something that others have said about Evan that has been untrue. You don’t see the claims of taking students money and printing out pictures of Brittney/Dave and blacking out their eyes as mud slinging? Come on…lets be real with whats going on. Evan is using this money thing as a way to attack Brittney/Dave’s character and not their platform. He is going after things he claim they have done and is trying to paint them as evil greedy SGA people. So how about before you claim mud slinging you take a look at what is really going on…get your facts straight…

Is there anything wrong with asking that the SGA debate not be put on by SGA politicians?

CM-Life or another disinterested, neutral party could moderate the event.

Stop Crying,

Every member of SGA has already declared that they will support Brittney. I say to you stop crying, are you afraid that YOUR paid will not be there next year? Don’t think that I don’t know who you are, we work together. You have always lied to me and my friends, you are the biggest Brittney supporter that I know. Take a look at both sides, obviously Brittney is an RA(Free room and board), her parents are rich, 12 credit hours for free, and 1,350 dollars per semester. Come on, you could at least donate some of that money back to the school.

I agree with common sense and think there is nothing wrong to ask for a moderator without a preconceived idea about the candidates.

Dave Breed is an idiot. Why would anyone trust him to be an even larger part of SGA. Couldn’t he just pretend he agree’d with Brittany instead of contradicting everything that was said. This is truly disappointing.

Hayley,

Then why not pay any other RSO President and Vice President? Every RSO President and VP puts in hours upon hours to help this campus out by bringing in speakers to diversify this campus in every way, and yet they aren’t even paid to spend those hours doing those things? You have to separate the Personal from the Professional. Personally Brittney is a great person, so is Dave, Evan and Jessica. But you can’t do a good job just on personality alone.

Professionally this year Brittney has done nothing. They changed the tailgating rules, got us the teacher evaluation forms, then later were taken down without a fight(or listening to the STUDENTS), then after that they have done nothing. They promised a lot last year during their campaign. Of those promises they kept one, the teacher forms, but later was taken down. Now Brittney is giving us a bunch of promises again, and lying to the student. I’m sorry but 14,000 dollars doesn’t just appear on a college campus it has to come from tuition or taxes by the State.

Evan hasn’t done anything wrong. He has gone around this campus listening to what students want. He has only made THREE promises not Eight or NINE. He is a great person and will be a great president.

Brittney
Personally: Good Person
Professionally: Didn’t get anything done!

Evan
Personally: Good Person
Professionally: HARD WORKER!

One last Question to all of you: Would you pay one person to do a job that another person would do, with the same type of work ethic, for no pay?

First off Will its Haley not Hayley…SGA is funded by the School and as well as a few others organizations and that’s why they get paid. Their main goals are for the school and to serve the school. Other RSO’s get their money from their members or SBAC fund. Yes other RSO’s bring things to campus and bring diversity. But their main goal is not to serve the school or the students. SGA’s main purpose is to represent to students and carry out things on behave of the student body. Other things that are put on by the school like homecoming are also paid by the school. The homecoming and sibs weekend through student life get paid as well. because they are putting on programs for the students and for the school. all of these positions are open to the students to apply for and help with. there is money budgeted by the administration for programing and things of that nature so that SGA and Homecoming,and Sibs and other things can be put on.

As for the teacher evaluations I know for a fact that SGA is working with facility to get them put up online after they work out more details. SGA didn’t throw in the towel they fought tooth and nail with faculty for students to have to right to get to see the teacher evaluations. But people don’t hear about all the committee meetings and presentations that take place. They just assume nothing is being done. Changes take time and it isn’t always easy when the facility or administration doesn’t want to give in.

You say that Evan has 3 things
1. he gets rid of money…ok so no one gets paid…well that money that the tuition credits comes from the presidents office so that wont go back to students. the other money that gets paid to eboard what is going to be done with that? it can’t go into scholarship because it comes from the programing fund and thats not what the money is allowed to be used for…so what will be done with the $9,000 or so? will Evan hand a penny back to all the students? whats the plan?
2. Evan says he will lower tuition. By going through the SGA budget and cutting things. Once again is cutting SGA’s budget by a few thousand actually going to lower tuition? Its not…so what are his other ideas to getting tuition lowered? I mean actual plan…where are the cuts specifically going to be made and what will the students get in return.
3. Tailgating…SGA has already restored some of the tailgating privileges. But Evan thinks he can do more. So what is his specific plan. how does he intend on getting the administration to actually change their mind? I mean the administration doesn’t seem to care that students were upset b/c students still went to the games and everything was find. once again what is Evans plan of action. Don’t just say bring tailgating back because that’s what students want to hear. and lets pretend that Evan does get tailgating back…ok…so students get to drink and party. YAY…no other goals in sight to better CMU. I don’t understand how the quality of CMU will go up if tailgating is the one of the only concerns there is.

I would also like to know what Evan has done for CMU so far. Where has he worked to improve CMU? Sure you say that Evan is a hard worker and all and Brittney hasn’t done anything…well show me then…

I am separating professional from personal…hard work and dedication deserved to get paid

Oops. Spelled ‘veil’ as ‘viel’. Sorry, didn’t want to leave a blatant error in my comment.

The last comment by Nick C shows exactly the kind of education CMU affords its students. While you can diminish the issue of paid SGA board members by showing the per capita student cost as $0.14 per tuition payer, this demonstration obfuscates the real issue at hand. Similarly, the majority in congress has presented a trillion dollar bill that will SAVE US MONEY!

Let us examine this argument. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is one of the only even handed operations on capitol hill. Essentially they operate as a calculator. Thus, politicians on both sides use their “reports” to support their arguments. THOSE OF US who cannot understand the principle of an argument will TEND TO TAKE THEM AT THEIR WORD for whichever party we like (usually because our parents do or some “cool” “hip” candidate comes around. You give them numbers and they process, no policy is questioned. If they are handed a bill that accounts for the government raising $100 billion by selling girl scout cookies, they will add that into the credit column, regardless of the likelihood of that policy being effective. This is why when medicare was estimated to cost $60 billion by the CBO, and it actually ended up costing around 9 times more than that. There are a number of other reasons for this explosion of cost but my point is this.

If we look at the numbers, which are 99%of the time cooked to suit either side’s argument, the debate becomes a charade. We must look at the principle of the issue which is this.

Should students be paid to do a job that should be entered into on the motive of service to the student body. Here you introduce an element which will attract those looking for “free” money. The work is admittedly semi-challenging, and the outcomes in past years have been largely inconsequential to the general body. At a time when many students’ wallets are hurting, and our leaders are giving us a comical example of fiscal responsibility, any candidate who is willing to take a pay-cut, however SMALL, is thinking in the right direction. A couple thousand here and there can translate into an attitude in the governing body where maybe they will STOP WASTING SO MUCH MONEY on C-LIST CELEBRITIES to come to campus and other such farcical money squandering endeavors.

About the lying, I am told that one side has been calling Agnello a liar for outlining where the stipends come from. I have heard that there is indisputable evidence from the administration that his facts are CORRECT. The actions of the other side calling him a liar would then be considered a smear. If the CM-Life is interested in a fair race, students might find an interesting article in the next few days which illustrates the pitiful attempt to run this independently thinking, responsible candidate out of the race.

(note: whoever posted about Lazarus’ gpa shows a real lack of character and in this case may actually have violated a law. I admit the previous FERPA allegations are dubious, however, this seems questionable. At best, a very low tactic to resort to. Chicago Politics on CMU CAMPUS, divine.

Richard-

Sorry, I first had to find what part of your response was about the current issue at hand and not your personal tirade on the recently passed health care bill and your distaste for the CBO.

Help me understand one thing, you criticize the use of numbers and statistics while noting that “99% of the time” numbers are cooked to suit one argument or another. It may be helpful to note that 65% of all statistics are made up on the spot. Or is it 67%?

All I know, is that Brittany and Dave have consistently showed us CMU students the official SGA budget numbers. Evan and Ben tell everyone that administration corroborates their claims, without showing any evidence at all to back it up. Just because I tell people that someone told me that CMU is haunted by a flying spaghetti monster – doesn’t make it true.

But I agree with you on one point, this debate has become a charade – thanks to you, Evan, Ben, and their other supporters. Thank you for making a mockery of this process. Thank you for disrespecting and defaming Brittany and Dave’s character, despite all of the blood, sweat, and tears they have poured into this university.

It’s because of people like you that I’m surprised they even try any more. Because of people like you, CMU doesn’t deserve leaders of their high caliber.

Haley,

I’m sorry that I spelled your name wrong, I hope that you accept my apology.

If you think about it the Program Board President gets paid to do his job. Okay that is fair because to my knowledge Dave doesn’t have another job, his parents aren’t rich, and he doesn’t work any other place. He is a good guy, like I said BEFORE. But now we look to see what has program board done this past year. In years past PB has brought in a lot of great comedians, speakers and partnered with On the Fly for concerts and many other things. The key word in the last sentence was YEARS PAST. What big name has PB brought in this year? Bo was basically the biggest name, and they got it free for students in August. So for the rest of the year he is trying to get someone else? I know that they get paid by the school, but just think about the this. SBAC funding is there, if there is more money for SBAC then more events can come to campus. Why pay the PB or SGA when if they have an event they can go to SBAC to get the money?

Other RSO Presidents on campus bring in bigger names than that or try to. Nathan Inks with the College Republicans brings in a speaker every week to campus, does he get paid? Of course not and yet he is doing a better job than that of PB right now. The College Democrats brought in Carl Levin in October, and got the Governors Candidate to come to campus (Virg Mayor of Lansing), Bryant Greiner with Campus Conservatives tried to bring in the Governors Debate to campus. When it fell through he still was able to get at least one candidate to come. There are many more groups that bring in so many speakers that would out do PB for this year and they don’t get paid to do this!

I know that they are still working on getting the grades on Blackboard. I know that they spend hours upon hours talking about how to get it done…..or so they say. Last I heard they GAVE UP on the grades being posted and decided to just have the SOS forms online. What a joke, the SOS forms are worthless. People guess what grade they have, their gpa, and how the teacher was to them. You still don’t get to see the grade distribution.

You just wrote down all three of Evan’s plans and questioned all of them. I would like you to write down all NINE or TEN of Brittany’s plan’s. There is more uncertainty in those plans than Evans. My biggest question for Brittany is how is she going to get the money for all of her idea’s? She also claims that SGA funding has gone down in years past. As an SGA Senator I can tell you that it has GONE UP in the past THREE YEARS. No way has it gone down, that is a lie.

Evan is a leader. He is apart of many RSO and a Fraternity. He has helped out this campus by being in those RSO and participating in bring speakers to campus. He was apart of SGA representing an RSO. Evan is an overall great guy and a hard worker. If you want someone that doesn’t go to bed until they feel they did all they could in that day to make sure that every student would be satisfied with the job they did in that day, Evan is your guy.

If you walk around campus you get the feel that people are tired of being kept in the dark about things that SGA does behind closed doors. The money they get is too much for the little things that they do(did this year).

Haley since you didn’t answer my last question, I will leave you with that same question and new one: Would you pay one person to do a job that another person would do, with the same type of work ethic, for Free?
Why would you go to a store and get the most expensive thing that works the same or better than the least expensive thing?
If you even care about this University as an Alum Haley you should chew on those words of wisdom.

Also Richard in D.C has great points.

Let me put it in words you would understand Peterwiggin: It is if FOX NEWS put on a debate, with no rules, changed the moderator three times in 72 hours, decided that they would choose five questions from the audience to ask each candidate. Do you think that would be fair to the Democrat? Of course not, those questions would be bias. If you can’t understand this concept then your an idiot. Would you put YOURSELF in that position?

Right… their is no such thing as stipends, they are non-existence bonuses…….your in the dark my friend and you don’t want to be lead into the light.