February 21, 2017

Three Missouri Students Association slates, Tori Schafer/Riley de Leon, Nathan Willett/Payton Englert and Josh Stockton/Shruti Gulati, are debating at 5 p.m. on Tuesday in Bengal Lair. The first debate is hosted by The Maneater and Four Front. Voting will begin on March 6 and end on March 8. Follow here for live updates and fact-checking.

**5:02 p.m.:** The debate is starting. Candidates are beginning their opening statements.

**5:18 p.m.:** Englert announces plan for liaisons underneath the chief inclusivity officer in order to better reach out to underserved communities on campus.

**5:23 p.m.:** Stockton defends calling the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center the “Rape and Sexual Violence Center” in his original online platform.

**5:29 p.m.:** Stockton says that Campus Dining Services “doesn’t pay our students anything.” CDS does pay their employees.

**5:36 p.m.:** All slates express support for limits on campaign spending for MSA campaigns. Willett/Englert have set their GoFundMe fundraising goal at $10,000. Stockton/Gulati have set their GoFundMe goal at $4,301. Schafer/de Leon are raising money for It’s On Us instead of fundraising for their campaign.

**5:42 p.m.:** Gulati repeatedly referred to the CDS budget as “millions and millions of dollars” earlier in the debate. The 2016 CDS budget was [$29 million](http://mubudget.missouri.edu/presentations.php).

**6:02 p.m.:** Schafer, who is involved with It’s On Us at MU, mentions that MU signed onto the It’s On Us campaign today.

**6:10 p.m.:** All slates agree that information about student fees should be more transparent.

**6:14 p.m.:** Schafer calls for more accessibility for students with special needs, modeled after a program at [Clemson University](https://www.clemson.edu/education/culife/).

**6:21 p.m.:** Schafer and de Leon clarify that their endowment for transgender students would be funded by donors.

**6:25 p.m.** All slates endorse the proposed [student enhancement fee](http://www.themaneater.com/stories/2017/2/1/msa-proposes-35-student-services-fee/) Willett focuses on educating the student body about the fee rather than pushing for blind support. The fee would provide funding for additional hours at the library, more counselors for the counseling center and upgrades to Tiger WiFi.

**6:33 p.m.:** Willett/Payton and Stockton/Gulati say that gender was not a factor when determining which candidate would run as president.

**6:40 p.m.:** De Leon names the Muslim Student Organization as a specific group that MSA should reach out to more.

**7:00 p.m.:** The slates conclude their closing statements. The debate has ended.

The next debate will take place at 6 p.m. on Monday at The Shack.

_Madi McVan, Tori Kuz and Sarah Hallam contributed to this report._

_Edited by Nancy Coleman | ncoleman@themaneater.com_

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