M.A.L.E.S club to host debate address minorities’ concerns

Martina Bretous/News Director

The Men Achieving Leadership, Excellence and Success organization wants their voice heard by SGA candidates in this upcoming election so they will host their own debate in collaboration with other minority-focused groups on campus.

“We feel that being part of the SGA election is very important being that, our voice isn’t really heard as much as it should be and … that’s an issue,” said Kensley Youte, president of M.A.L.E.S. “We want to make sure our concerns are being heard as well.”

M.A.L.E.S will host the debate with the presidential and vice-presidential nominees at the MMC on March 29 to discuss issues and concerns by minority groups at the University.

“It’s very important that people get involved in any election process. Right now, we’re in college but college is a really good representation of what you see in the outside world as far as voter turnout and things people care about,” said Mwai Osahar, treasurer of M.A.L.E.S and graduate senator candidate. “When the wrong person gets elected or someone that doesn’t do the right thing once they gain office, people complain.”

Osahar added that this is a great opportunity to understand the voting process and allows students to voice their concerns directly. While SGA will host a separate debate on March 31, the organization feels that will mostly address general University issues like parking and transportation.

“We reached out to the Global Indigenous Group and CSA, those smaller groups that haven’t really been heard…,” said Osahar. “[Then,] within their organization, they are going to come up with questions of their own and bring them to the table so they can address them at the debate.”

The organization stressed the importance of not disclosing the questions before the event to prevent any scripted speech.

“We want them [candidates] to answer honestly, we don’t them to have any preparation or give any scripted answers when it comes to certain things,” said Osahar. “We want to make sure we’re supporting the right candidate … not the person that has the best scripted answer.”

The event will take place from 4-6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 29 at the Parkview multi-purpose room.