Student Association will host a debate among this year’s executive election candidates today.

The debate will be held at 8 p.m. in the Holmes Student Center Regency Room. Candidates for the executive positions of the SA including president, vice president, treasurer and student trustee, will participate in the debate.

SA Election Commissioner Susie Richard and Ben Donovan, Board of Elections chair, will moderate the debate.

“The setup is each group of candidates will come up, and a series of question will be asked by myself and the chair of the Board of Elections, Ben Donovan,” Richards said. “All questions will be the same for each position.”

Candidates will answer the same questions as their opponents. The audience will participate at the conclusion of the debate when the floor will be open to questions, Richards said.

“Mainly, the committee has a set amount of questions, and we [individual members of the Board of Elections] came up with our own,” said Alex Summers, SA senator and member of the Board of Elections.

Summers said he will ask about candidates’ interaction and experience with SA along with their knowledge of the bylaws. The Board of Elections will meet today to discuss the questions that will be asked at the debate.

“It’s in your [NIU students’] best interest to see who is most capable in leading SA in the right direction,” Summers said.

Mike Theodore, SA chief of staff, moderated the executive election debate last year and said candidates displayed confidence in the positions they ran for.

“What I’ve been stressing is this is the most competitive election in recent history,” Theodore said. “NIU is in a period of change right now.”

Students should watch the debate to see if the candidates can represent their ideas to the administration, which has ties to the SA, Theodore said.

“It’s a time where student leaders say … this is where the university wants to go,” Theodore said.

The executive elections are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Students may vote by presenting their NIU OneCard at Barsema Hall, DuSable Hall, Founders Memorial Library, Holmes Student Center or the Recreation Center.