The Northern Star, in hopes of giving students an opportunity to question candidates in the upcoming Student Association election, moderated a forum Thursday night.

Candidates present at the forum were SA presidential candidates Shaun Crisler, R.J. Gravel and Eric Youngquist, vice-presidential candidates Laisha Fox and Andrew Becerra, treasurer candidates Joshua Blakemore and Andrew Josephson and student trustee candidates Jeffrey Meyer and Kevin Miller.

The topics of the questions ranged from goals the candidates had to their thoughts on the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

Youngquist, who is running with vice president candidate Susan Gonwa, kicked off the introduction of the forum in which candidates were given on opportunity to say a little about themselves and what they are about.

Youngquist said he is running on an independent platform and wants get students more involved with the SA.

Meyer said he would try to maintain the affordability of tuition as student trustee. He said he thought undergraduates took the brunt of the budget problems from last year.

Meyer, Fox, Gravel and Blakemore are all running on the “Get Represented” ticket.

Fox, who is currently Campus Activities Board president, said she is concerned over the additional cost students occur from the Convocation Center.

Gravel said the idea behind their platform is taking on the issues they believe they could accomplish this year. Those issues include obtaining heated bus shelters, getting more parking spaces for students, specifically brown spaces, and getting out a resource evaluation for classes. These evaluation would give students an opportunity to say which books and other materials they needed for class.

Becerra’s goals are to build a better SA Web site that is more informative for students and get a better relationships with organizations and students on campus.

The next speaker, Crisler, said he thought the SA book exchange program was good and said students tell him they are doing a good job.

Crisler also felt that students did not know enough about what was available to them and what their student fees pay for.

Josephson said if elected as treasurer, he wanted to work with all SA funded organizations and help them find outside funding.

Miller, who had just came back from testifying in Springfield on behalf of the students regarding the current budget crisis, talked about the possible funding problems next year. He also voiced his support for the SA book exchange and his idea for a free credit counseling service.

“I’d like to see something like that on campus,” Miller said.

Sharina Ware, junior history major, expressed concerns over the “Get Represented” ticket’s idea of a heated bus shelter. She questioned if, given the budget crisis, is it feasible to take funding from other student organizations and put it toward bus shelters.

Meyer, who serves on the SA Mass Transit board with Gravel, said the money for the shelters would come from the surplus in the mass transit budget. That budget is separate from the one reserved for student organizations.

SA elections are Tuesday and Wednesday.