Re-Cap: TSG Debate #1

By Rebekah Harding

Kicking off the start of Temple Student Government campaign season activities, presidential candidates Joseph Crespo of ListenTU and Quinn Litsinger of Bloom TU took to Facebook Live to debate campus issues like partial tuition reimbursement, university divestment in fossil fuels, and the ethical complications of an LGBTQ+ Living Learning Community. 

If you missed the live stream during your busy day of isolating on the couch, we’ve compiled a recap so you don’t miss a thing before election day.

ListenTU’s Joseph Crespo, a junior financial planning major, began his opening statement by emphasizing the need for emergency campus closure preparedness in light of the recent COVID-19 closure. As a first-generation college student coming from a low-income background himself, Crespo empathizes with students financially impacted by the closure by calling for a week off for emergency re-acclamation, partial tuition reimbursement for the switch to online classes and university transparency on the currently postponed Spring 2020 commencement ceremony. 

Quinn Litsinger, a sophomore political science major and current TSG director of government affairs, opened by breaking down BloomTU’s platform into three digestible sections: elevate, thrive and empower — all with an emphasis on TSG accountability. 

Part of BloomTU’s accountability plan would include an initiative tracker where students could check in on TSG’s progress on campaign promises. Litsinger then introduces BloomTU’s initiatives to specifically advocate for gender-neutral bathrooms, stand against the building of the stadium, divest in fossil fuel and implement a student referendum system. 

Moderator Rofiat Oseni, chief judge of TSG’s Ethics Board, opens up the floor to discuss candidate opinions on-campus expansion, like the potential construction of a sports stadium that has received resounding push-back from local residents and students alike. Both BloomTU and ListenTU are in agreement.

“We are straight opposed to the stadium,” Litsinger said. 

Citing the concern of raised rent prices and increased noise levels, Litsinger brings the issue back to Temple’s long history of gentrification in the North Philadelphia community it occupies. 

While Crespo brings up that construction has already been approved by Temple, he is firm that ListenTU will continue to oppose and work with “stadium stompers.”

For BloomTU, promoting student civic engagement needs to go beyond a couple of clicks on TUportal as we elect our next TSG leaders. By working with the commissioners’ office, Litsinger outlines a plan to implement a central polling location on campus for the 2020 presidential election— that means no more running four blocks away to vote in between classes, or skipping class altogether, on election day. 

While ListenTU also wants to involve local government and promote civic engagement, Crespo advocates for rent and eviction freezes to help low-income students and student workers financially recover from the COVID-19 campus closure.

We all have the first day of fall classes marked on our calendar — the day everything will (hopefully) go back to normal. But in the unfortunate case of the Fall 2020 semester being impacted by the pandemic, BloomTU and ListenTU are split on how the newly elected TSG will address these adjustments. 

Crespo expresses his frustration on how slowly the pandemic was addressed by the university and sees transparency as the forefront of ListenTU’s COVID-19 plan. In addition to on-campus housing and meal plan reimbursements, Crespo demands a $500 refund for the general activities fee that is charged to all students each semester. (Actually, the general activities fee is $445 for students taking more than nine credits).

“Temple will try to keep all of its money, but we need to pressure the university to give us the money we deserve,” Crespo says.

Although BloomTU supports the refunding of the general activities fee, Litsinger questions the full activities fee reimbursement as students were on campus for half of the semester — in turn suggesting a partial refund to encompass the activities affected by the closure. He points to the salaries of Temple security who will remain working to keep the campus safe for those who remain after the closure, and staff who will continue teaching through closure adjustments.

Both campaigns are supporting partial tuition refunds and are exploring how that can most effectively be calculated. 

All of us are experiencing the emotional ups and downs that come with the huge life adjustment of the campus closure but for some students, no longer having access to campus mental health services is taking a huge toll. 

Crespo recognizes the importance of strengthening Tuttleman Counseling Services to accommodate students virtually, work with community partners and promote the Tuttleman Talks initiative that would create a mental health hotline for students. 

Litsinger believes that with Tuttleman already overwhelmed, TSG should explore external resources for students and focus on advocating for an in-house LGBTQ specialist.

“It’s about executable plans that we can put into place given where the university is,” says Litsinger.

For future campus-wide issues like the COVID-19 closure, Litsinger introduces a student referendum system, based on University of Pittsburgh’s method, in which students would use their OwlCards to vote on issues that could be presented to the university as a legitimized survey.

The first TSG executive team debate took place on April 2. Pictured are Presidents Joseph Crespo, of ListenTU, and Quinn Listinger, of Bloom TU.

When prompted with a student question on promoting LGBTQ+ support and inclusion on campus, ListenTU and BloomTU clashed.

As a campaign with the majority of its members belonging to the LGBTQ+ community, ListenTU believes that although they had no specific LGBTQ+ platforms on their site, advocating for their community is included within their other platforms. 

Litsinger cites BloomTU’s advocacy for gender-neutral bathrooms on campus, preferred names on OwlCards without additional paperwork and the potential for LGBTQ+ Living Learning Communities, which created unprecedented controversy between the two campaigns and students in the comments of the live stream.

“LLCs are not demographically based so that would be modern segregation,” Crespo objects.

If elected, BloomTU plans to continue the monthly town halls used by IgniteTU and BecomingTU. ListenTU hopes to boost engagement by implementing biweekly meetings between TSG and the student body.

Citing criticism of Temple’s mostly “reactive” plans to combat sexual assault on campus, both candidates share their ideas on how the university can implement more proactive programming.

BloomTU hopes to work with bars around campus to become Safe Bar Certified, which would train staff to identify signs of harassment and create a safe environment.

Litsinger justifies, “if people are more comfortable going there, they will see more business.”

BloomTU also plans to continue work with Women Against Rape and the Wellness Resource Center to provide more proactive and reactive support to students. 

Crespo shares ListenTU’s plans to continue sexual assault awareness and advocacy through Walk TU and Women Against Rape programming during Sexual Assault Awareness Week.

BloomTU announced an initiative to create a new director of accessibility position to advocate for disabled students on campus through TSG, going beyond a Disability Resource Center representative in Parliament.

When suggested that this new position may be overreacting and unnecessary, Litsinger reiterated that there’s “no such thing as overreaching when advocating for marginalized communities.”

Both organizations have campus diversity at the forefront of their campaign. ListenTU plans to support Black and brown first-year students by promoting minority frats and sororities, continue lighting the bell tower for Black history month and collaborations with IDEAL and the Africology department for programming. BloomTU is pushing for each campus organization to have at least one member Safezone trained and will continue to advocate for a multicultural caucus.

Both candidates were asked how they will support and plan multicultural events and initiatives without stepping on the toes of multicultural organizations like Temple’s Black Law Students Association and their programming. Litsinger points to the importance of a multicultural student caucus for decision making. Crespo plans to work with these organizations to promote their events and let them tell the TSG what they need, not the other way around.

If you read our Sustainability issue last fall, you know we’re completely here for university fossil fuel divestment. BloomTU’s initiative to work with the board of trustees will advocate for Temple to pull endowment investments away from fossil fuels and reinvest in cleaner energy, a step many Ivy Leagues have already taken.

While onboard, Crespo questions whether this is realistic for the TSG to implement. Litsinger acknowledges that a single administration may not be able to accomplish this in full, but plans to start the process.

Crespo asserts his edge as a current resident assistant as being more connected to students and knowing what they need. When faced with a resident complaining of having to travel all the way to Ambler campus to pray, Crespo is prioritizing the creation of more diverse religious spaces on campus for non-Christian students to practice their faith.

While this came with some push back from Litsinger who opts for non-designated and all-inclusive religious space on campus, Crespo insists that the implementation of specified prayer spaces for non-Christians is creating “more safe space, not taking space away.”

If you’ve been wondering what the deal is with the (more often than not) unreliable Flight app, according to Litsinger this might not get completely fixed any time soon. Temple is currently in a two-year contract with the app developers so we may not see changes to the current system until the contract ends. Until then, both campaigns are intent on advocating for smaller-scale changes to improve the app.

In their closing statements, Litsinger reiterated the importance of student engagement and listening to the voices of the student body. 

“Student government is about reaching out to as many students as possible, and building a diverse and informed student body,” Crespo concludes.

Make sure to tune into the upcoming parliament debate on April 6 and the second executive debate on April 13 on the TSG Facebook page. And don’t forget to vote for your candidate on April 14 and 15.