Student Assembly Holds Student Body Presidential Debate

Monday, March 28, around 80 students filed into the Sadler Center’s Commonwealth Auditorium for the annual Student Assembly Presidential Debate. Joined by a number of students watching virtually on a livestream, they watched presidential candidates Conor Sokolowsky ’23, John Cho ’23 and Mikayla Fulcher ’23 speak about their campaign platforms.

The debate focused on DEI initiatives, mental health and what unique traits each candidate can bring to the presidency. A tense moment at the end of the debate highlighted the competitive nature of this year’s election — the first in three years to have multiple candidates. 

Moderators Jane Cohen ’25 and Daniela Lacalle ’22 started the debate by asking each candidate to read their prepared two-minute opening statement. 

Class of 2023 President Sokolowsky, who is running with Bryce Earley ’23 as his vice presidential candidate, was the first to speak. 

“I can’t wait to share more about my campaign platform, although an hour is nowhere near enough to cover the depth and breadth of our ideas,” Sokolosky said. 

In his opening statement, Sokolowsky discussed his ticket’s DEI initiatives, including advocating for the Preferred Names on Tribe cards pilot program, creating LGBTQ+ safe spaces and supporting researching into Native American history on campus. 

Sokolowsky also emphasized his campaign’s focus on battling mental health issues and sexual assault on campus, including ways to enhance existing evidence-collection systems and resources such as the Haven.

Cho, who is running with Jasmin Martinez ’23 as his vice presidential candidate, spoke next. Cho is the Chief of Staff for current SA President Meghana Boojala ’22.

“I have been reflecting a lot on why I was motivated to run and I found myself leaning into my experiences coming into William and Mary,” Cho said at the start of his opening statement.

“As a freshman, I worked two part-time jobs, I was helping out my family business and I was the primary caregiver to a younger brother with Down syndrome, and I found that there were a lack of resources and leaders on campus who were going to listen to me and advocate for me, and that’s exactly why Jasmin and I are running,” Cho said.

“As a freshman, I worked two part-time jobs, I was helping out my family business and I was the primary caregiver to a younger brother with Down syndrome, and I found that there were a lack of resources and leaders on campus who were going to listen to me and advocate for me, and that’s exactly why Jasmin and I are running.”

Mikayla Fulcher ’23, current SA Deputy Secretary for Outreach and Campaigns, rounded out the opening speeches. Fulcher is running without a vice presidential candidate, and says that the VP position would be chosen by the Student Assembly Senate. 

“My goal for tonight is to make sure you guys feel comfortable talking to me about anything and everything, whether that’s about your feelings or about what you think Student Assembly can improve on,” Fulcher said. “There’s a lot of things that separate me from the other candidates…one of the biggest is that my platform has just three main points, and that’s outreach, transparency and health & wellness, and that’s because I feel, as a president, I shouldn’t be the person that tells you what we should work on, but the person that listens to you.”

Throughout the debate, Sokolowsky focused on his experience that lends itself to being SA president. 

“In my role as class president, I’ve learned to really grow into it and find out exactly what you can do,” Sokolowsky said. 

He also emphasized his position on the Williamsburg Planning Commission, where he advocates for affordable, equitable and accessible housing off-campus.

“I know how to navigate a space where students aren’t represented well…a space where people don’t want you to be speaking your voice because you’re challenging the status quo, you’re challenging what has already been there, the laws that are already there, the decisions that have already been made.”   

“I know how to navigate a space where students aren’t represented well…a space where people don’t want you to be speaking your voice because you’re challenging the status quo, you’re challenging what has already been there, the laws that are already there, the decisions that have already been made.”

Sokolowsky also emphasized the depth of his campaign platform, especially in regard to DEI policies. 

“Our DEI platform is entirely formed by student leaders on campus who brought these here, I think we’re the only platform that has explicit initiatives for very specific communities on campus…while sections of our platforms are based in those DEI initiatives, we’re really looking to break out of that as well because there are other issues that impact marginalized communities on campus that aren’t talked about as much…one example in our academic affairs platform piece, we’re looking at expanding course offerings by partnering with some HBCUs on the peninsula,” Sokolowsky said.

Cho emphasized his focus on achievability in his campaign promises. 

“You’ll notice with our platform a lot of our ideas are action-oriented, making sure we stray away from these really big and vain ideas…we can’t solve mental health but what can we do to help students resolve their issues?” Cho said. “We didn’t want to reiterate things that were already going on on campus, taking credit for initiative that other departments, offices, organizations were doing, and we thought it was important and more beneficial to have…a couple of very driven groups and initiatives than to have a bunch of platforms that were a mile wide and an inch deep.”

In response to a question on mental health, Cho proposed multiple solutions.

“A lot of the limited number of appointments are due to a nationwide shortage of staff and mental health professionals and something that we believe we could utilize is advocating for expanding tele-health appointments and making sure…that students have access to appointments that they need,” Cho said. 

Cho continued on the topic of mental health, discussing different on-campus resources including group therapy.

“We also wanted to continue and increase diversity and professional development for mental health professionals, making sure that they have the resources and they can adequately help our different marginalized communities on campus. Currently we have different group therapy options limited to a number of different topics, and we want to make sure that every population at William & Mary has a safe space with a mental health professional that they can turn to to talk about their issues,” Cho said. 

Fulcher highlighted the practical nature of her campaign.  

“I think it’s really important when talking about health and mental wellness…to know that Student Assembly can’t change things at this school, we can’t hire new people and we can’t change hours, that’s something that will be really hard and would take maybe a year at least and then that would have to be pushed onto the next ticket, so I think it’s important to think about tangible actions,” Fulcher said. 

“I think it’s really important when talking about health and mental wellness…to know that Student Assembly can’t change things at this school, we can’t hire new people and we can’t change hours, that’s something that will be really hard and would take maybe a year at least and then that would have to be pushed onto the next ticket, so I think it’s important to think about tangible actions.”

Later in the same answer, Fulcher suggested wellness days and emphasized spreading awareness about pre-existing programs to students, among other solutions. 

Fulcher also highlighted the outreach and transparency focuses of her campaign. 

“I would love to have these things called ‘Chat and Chews,’ which are different from office hours, because as a peer, we should never have office hours, we should have one-on-one conversations,” Fulcher said. 

Fulcher further expanded on the purpose of the “Chat and Chews” aspect of her campaign.

“At the beginning of the semester, I will have so many times for people to come and chat with me so that I can understand what the student body wants, so, beginning of the fall semester, you’re going to be sick of seeing my face because I’m going to be at every event, I’m going to be at some many sessions where you can come out, chat with me, tabling, just sitting outside…and then from there I would…make sure those things actually happen,” Fulcher said.

The debate was not without its charged moments. John Cho was asked a question about his relationship with the school administration, prompting debate between the candidates. 

“I’ve had the privilege of serving on the Board of Visitors’ Committee on Student Experience, I’m also a President’s Aide and I’m part of the Provost’s Working Group on Climate as well as the Provost Working Group on Academic Stress, and I’ve found that in every single one of these roles, what’s lacked is student voice and not just mine, because it is not my story or experience to tell, but inviting different groups, different students who are affected by these issues to come directly and talk to these administrators,” Cho said in his allotted time to answer the question.

In the rebuttal period, Sokolowsky responded to Cho’s statement.

“Assuming that we can’t expand the number of voices in those spaces, if your voice couldn’t bring that change, what will?” Soklowsky said.

Cho responded, stating that he invited a number of groups to speak at the Board of Visitors committee and Provost Working Groups while serving on them. 

During his closing remarks, Sokolowsky made a significant claim about the Cho-Martinez campaign, stating that he believed supporters of their campaign had committed multiple violations of the Independent Election Committee’s rules.

“I would like to take this opportunity to speak about the integrity of the democratic process within which we are all running…in the past seven days alone, only our campaign has been targeted by numerous class 3 violations including one, anonymous attacks on our character that have directly influenced questions we have received from the student body and two, the removal or vandalism of our campaign materials. All of these actions appear to have been done…in support of the Cho/Martinez campaign…[The Cho/Martinez campaign’s] inaction to disavow these attacks demonstrate the blatant hypocrisy for the values emphasized by their platform,” Sokolowsky said.

Cho responded to Sokolowsky with the below statement.

“I am so sorry that those things happened and our campaign had no knowledge nor would endorse any of that kind of behavior,” Cho said.“We tried to work with the Independent Elections Commission, as well as reaching out multiple times, making sure that we…protect the integrity of the elections process and everything within it.”

Fulcher ended her closing remarks with a message about voting philosophy. 

“I think it’s really important when you cast your vote not to think about who’s been campaigning the hardest, who’s been doing digs, who’s been saying this that and the third, but maybe just think about who’s going to be best for you and who’s going to take the opportunity to work for you,” Fulcher said.

A full recording of the presidential debate can be found here. 

The election will occur Thursday, March 31.

CORRECTION: This article was corrected on April 4, 2022 to correct the moderator’s name. It was originally printed as “Danielle” when it should have been printed as “Daniela Lacalle.”