Monday night Marquette Student Government candidates headed off in what current MUSG President and College of Business Administration senior Dan Calandriello called a "passionate and spirited debate."

The debate included questions about how the candidates plan on fulfilling their roles in MUSG, the candidates' previous experience with MUSG, questions from the audience focusing on Student Organization Allocations and the candidates' individual platforms.

According to MUSG presidential candidate and College of Arts & Sciences junior Brock Banks, the most important role of the MUSG president is increasing communication. However, Banks said his campaign was the only one that presented a "feasible plan increasing communication." His plan includes increasing the number of student advocates from one to four.

MUSG presidential candidate and College of Arts & Sciences junior Sara Stellpflug agreed that communication is important but said the way to go about it is by "being a liaison between the administration and the student body" and "representing the concerns of the student body to the administration."

Stellpflug also questioned Banks, saying, "As MUSG legislative vice president, Brock Banks has had problems filling the seats of the Senate this year, so I'm curious how he plans on filling the seats of student advocates that he proposes adding because it seems unlikely that he will be able to do so."

Banks and his opponent Stellpflug have both been involved in MUSG for the last three years.

Banks has served as a senator, president pro-tempore and legislative vice president. Under his leadership the Senate has produced more legislation than last year, including nine recommendations to the administration.

Stellpflug has served as a senator for three years, been a member of the budget committee, SOA committee and the chairperson of the Student Life facet of MUSG.

Under Stellpflug's leadership, the Student Life facet of MUSG is bringing a bill to the table at this Thursday's MUSG Senate meeting asking for $25,000 of the Reserve Fund to be withdrawn in order to purchase two community service vans.

Several questions arose from the 50 plus students in attendance regarding SOA, and how the candidates plan on improving it.

Dan Guenther, running mate of Stellpflug and College of Business Administration junior, denoted a plan that includes allowing organizations to give a five-minute presentation to the SOA committee explaining why organizations should receive funding in addition to the application itself.

"We want organizations to be able to explain their event for us not just outside the meeting in the application itself, but also in the meeting by giving a presentation where they will explain their outreach to the university through their event," Stellpflug said.

Sara Soriano, running mate of Banks and College of Arts & Sciences sophomore, expressed her plan of changing the SOA process by going out and meeting student organization leaders "face-to-face" and provide them with fundraising tips in addition to the allocation itself.

Attacks on their opponent's campaign tickets occurred during the debate, including Banks criticizing Stellpflug's plan to work for a Dead Week by saying, "Let's be realistic . if we get two days off before finals then we're going to make up for those two days by not having a fall break and shorter spring break, and students don't want that."

Banks also criticized Stellpflug's decision to vote against the recommendation to abolish the "Gold" nickname during the Gold controversy in 2005, saying, "Things are going to come up and you want to make sure you have a president who fight to represent the students during controversies like the nickname one in 2005."

Stellpflug criticized Banks' plan to establish a book exchange with Pick-a-Prof.com, saying the Web site lacks personal security clauses and "any Web site endorsed by MUSG needs to be more safe and stable for students than Pick-a-Prof.com."

The election takes place all day Wednesday online at www.mu.edu/musg.