This year’s candidates for the Student Government Association executive office presented their platforms in a four-panel debate Tuesday evening.

The two contesting parties, the New Deal and the Remix Party, focused on achieving reform and accountability.

Summing up the New Deal’s stance, vice presidential candidate Cameron Secord said, “We feel students should have a hand in allocation of fees. We’re the New Deal for a reason. Whether it is from giving the students a choice on the ballot to giving students the choice all the way, we are giving the students the New Deal.”

On the side of the Remix party, presidential candidate Laura Ann Thompson said, “Rethinking, reenergizing and remixing, that is the Remix Party.”

“What we don’t want is people involved in SGA for a year to become disenchanted. This is a fabulous organization that is dedicated to the student body.”

The debate began with the question of how to deal with the $100 fee imposed on students in January, and how to handle future fees.

Thompson said, “I don’t disagree with the fee, [but] I do believe the process was distressed. We need to refocus efforts with the Board of Regents and ask for a timeline to assess fees.”

Katie Barlow, the New Deal presidential candidate, said she agrees with Thompson. But she added that “a student voice on Regents is needed.”

The two parties also advocated plus/minus grading system reform.

“The plus/minus system has been solidified. The question is one of priority over the A plus or the C minus,” Barlow said. “The first priority is the C minus lacking credit. It isn’t right.”

Some departments do not count a C minus as a passing grade. If a C minus doesn’t qualify as a passing grade, Barlow said the New Deal will “meet with department heads and deans to decide if the fail is not a 74 [percent] in one class and a 70 [percent] in the other.”

The Remix Party, on the other hand, emphasized adding an A plus to the grading system, in addition to eliminating the C minus.

“The A plus would be a different system,” Thompson said. “For employers, [the A plus] sets you apart.”

Candidates for both parties said they want to be available to students.

Remix Party candidates said if elected, they intend to hold office hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The New Deal candidates said they see availability as “ground zero” and hope to bring their plan to the student process. Their availability, they said, ties in with their promise to give students the opportunity to decide how SGA is organized after the next term.

“We will allow for [SGA] to get out of this identity crisis of being either a student government with lobbying and advocacy or just student advocacy,” Barlow said. “Students need to decide and the New Deal will lead the way.”

Thompson said the Remix Party wants to change the role of SGA at the University.

“When you think about remix songs, they take a good song and take a different spin on it,” Thompson said. “We want to remix the role SGA plays in students’ lives. We want to take an old song and make it new.”