Monday night, 60-plus students watched as candidates for Marquette Student Government president and executive vice president took the stage in the primary debate.

College of Business Administration junior Dan Calandriello and running mate College of Health Sciences junior Kristen Kamm debated College of Communication junior Jamie Wu and running mate College of Arts & Sciences junior Anna Titulaer on the first floor of the Alumni Memorial Union.

The debate began with questions moderated by Dan Payette, College of Arts & Sciences senior and MUSG Elections Coordinator , which included the proposal for student representation on the board of trustees, student tuition increases and campus safety.

Both campaign teams highlighted the need for action and "fighting the fights worth fighting," such as achieving student representation on the board of trustees.

"With student representation the students' needs will be heard," Kamm said, followed by Calendriello who emphasized the "huge decisions" the board of trustees makes that affect the lives of the students.

The increase in student tuition was another key issue in the debate.

"We understand why the university is raising the tuition, but it should not hurt the students, and the burden of the raising tuition should not fall on students . . . something should be done about it," Titulaer said.

Another focus of the debate was that of student safety on campus. Wu and Titulaer emphasized the Department of Public Safety's work and called it "the No. 1 public safety in the nation." Wu and Titulaer said they plan on working with DPS to prevent crime and promote feelings of comfort on campus.

Calandriello opposed Wu's stance and said the immediate area off campus "gets scary" and that MUSG needs to form a committee to create a plan of attack on what needs to be worked on.

"We need to do this right and make campus safer," Calandriello said.

The second half of the debate consisted of a question-and-answer session with the attending students, where concerns such as how each candidate would handle conflicts with the administration arose.

"Serving on the MUSG Senate, I have experience with conflict and will handle it in the best interest of the students," Calandriello said. "When the whole mascot issue began I helped form the legislation that represented the students."

Wu and Titulaer highlighted the rising fine arts issue on campus.

"Fine arts at Marquette was taken out of our curriculum, and that is completely unacceptable," Titulaer said. "Who we are and where we're going as a school needs to have a fine arts program, and we will fight for the fine arts."

Other questions included the strengths and weaknesses of the current MUSG administration and what the candidates propose to do with the MUSG reserve fund.

Both campaign groups agreed the money should be spent, but differed in where the money would go. Calandriello suggested investing in Norris Park, whereas Wu and Titulaer believed the money should be given to various student organizations and to fund diverse programming.

After the event, Payette said neither campaign group truly won the debate.

"This debate was really an opportunity to ask and answer the questions of the students. The final debate will be more based on the issues and will have a more clear winning campaign group," he said.

The final MUSG presidential debate will take place March 20 , and the election will take place on March 22.