For the second time during Spring elections, a debate hosted by a student organization was canceled due to only one party accepting the invitation.
The UF Hispanic Student Association canceled its debate after Swamp Party declined to participate. Swamp also declined a debate organized by UF Pride Student Union and Women’s Student Association, as well as the Asian American Student Union.
Access Party President Matthew Hoeck said the party was looking forward to the debate. But now, “This is another year that students and other student organizations don’t have a platform,” he said.
Hoeck said he feels the debate hosted by the Freshman Leadership Council can’t fully represent all student organizations.
The president of HSA, Liana Guerra, said she was disappointed the debate had to be canceled.
“They’re not being transparent to student organizations and students as a whole,” the 22-year-old UF economics senior said.
She said the goal of the debate was to engage students in both parties, but with only one party accepting the offer, that goal couldn’t be met.
Swamp Party President Ricky Salabarria wrote a statement explaining the party’s reason for declining.
“We only wanted to participate in the debate endorsed by the supervisor of elections,” he said. “We feel the FLC debate is all encompassing, and will fully represent the diverse students across campus.”
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 2/17/2015 under the headline “Swamp declines; debate canceled"]
