OUSC presidential hopefuls made their final remarks to students Friday before voting commenced this Monday, March 28.

The candidates gathered with their running mates in the Fireside Lounge to discuss their platforms, taxes, funding from the state and sing the fight song.

Roughly four dozen students showed up to watch the debate.

The candidates were asked questions ranging from discussing the obstacles that stand for implementing their plans and how they compliment the current administration and running mates.

Junior Shakita Billy, running with junior Eric Sturgis, spoke of her OUSC experience and campus involvement when asked why she was qualified to become the next student body president.

“I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I know how the average student feels. I can relate to the average student … I believe that my experience makes me more qualified than the other candidates,” Billy said.

Freshman Benjamin Eveslage, running with junior Elisa Malile, spoke to the audience about the keys to accomplishing his platforms goals.

“We have some amazing goals that we would like to accomplish, but the biggest thing is having the support and motivation behind you to get those things done and I think we’ve already done that,” Eveslage said about his experiences so far.

Junior Tom Cruz, running with junior Brett McIsaac, said that professors are key to reaching out to the student body and helping them to become more involved.

“The professors want to make this more like a college campus just as much, if not more, than we do and they’ll be willing to take five minutes at the beginning of their class to advertise … to help get the students more involved,” Cruz said.

Each candidate also touched on the proposed expansion of student fees made Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee. The Student Activity Fund Assessment Committee recently passed a proposal to up the student activities fee to $30 from $25.

“If we’re paying more money, there needs to be a direct by-product for all the students as well. We want to see events that everyone can participate in, and not have to pay $5 to go see,” said junior Tyler Glen, who is running with junior Ryan Rott

The debate ended with a series of “rapid fire” questions at the event of the debate where they were to provide one-word answers.

They were asked whether they support the 56 credit requirement to live in the student apartments, which candidate they would vote for if they were taken out of the election and were all asked to sing the OU fight song simultaneously.

OUSC Elections end Wednesday, March 30. The election results will be announced Friday, April 1 in the Fireside Lounge of the Oakland Center.