The Student Government Association held “Meet the Candidates” last Wednesday to give candidates vying for SGA positions an opportunity to voice their platforms.

Related: SGA candidates announced

James Orr, a secondary education major from Whiteville, is opposing Tracy Baker for the presidency.

“To be a good leader, you have to be able to serve.”

Orr is running on the Effective Connections party ticket. Effective Connections prides itself on diversity and aims to build better cooperation between SGA and the students.

Baker, a political science and French major from Lebanon, says she is qualified to be president because she served as chief executive assistant to SGA. Baker is running on the UTM First Party, which desires to “improve communication” between organizations.

“I’ve been allowed to work with both SGA leaders and campus administrators,” Baker said.

Vice Presidential candidate Rachel Albritton is also running on the UTM First ticket. Albritton currently serves as a senator in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

“I served as the Academic Affairs [Committee] chair. UTM First Party has a lot of things to get accomplished,” Albritton said. Albritton is opposed by Rachel Hammond, a senator in the College of Business and Public Affairs. Hammond served on the Campus Observation Committee.

“We passed a lot of legislation and have a lot more that we have to do our homework on. We’re a really diverse party with a lot of backgrounds.”

Hammond is running with Orr on the Effective Connections ticket. The only contested Senate race is in the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, but the only candidate to appear at the event was freshman Rebecca Dailey, who is running on the UTM First ticket. Dailey is the vice president of Freshmen Council.

Dailey said, “I thoroughly enjoyed working with SGA on a few projects [while in Freshmen Council.]”

SGA held its regular Senate meeting following the candidate forum. The Multicultural Affairs Committee proposed that UTM sponsor a Diversity Week and an all-female intramural basketball team to travel to a national competition.

If the proposal is approved, the team, coached by Multicultural Affairs Committee chair and presidential candidate James Orr, will travel to the National Intramural Basketball Championships. The committee said forming a women’s team was recommended because men already get recognized for their athletic abilities. Orr, who also sponsored the proposal, said sending the team to the tournament would be beneficial since the players are “diverse.” A similar proposal has been brought up in the past but was not approved.

“If the proposal is approved, it could open up more doors for the university because more prospective students could get a chance to learn about UTM,” Orr said.

The proposal will roughly cost $1,771 for the team to travel to the competition. The committee is asking SGA for $650.

The Multicultural Affairs Committee has already begun asking local businesses for their support and they reported that many of them have agreed to help if SGA also provides some of the money.

When asked if the proposal was in writing, Orr said he had a three-page proposal but did not bring it to Senate.

Sen. Jake Dunavant moved that SGA give the $650 to the basketball team. A roll call vote was taken to close the discussion on the motion for the proposal, but the motion did not pass.

The proposal was tabled until the next meeting.

President Dusty Dean said Orr’s committee was unprepared for the meeting and that he “will only consider well researched, written proposals once they come across [his] desk.”