Few students know they are offering to pay the tuition for whomever they elect for Student Government Executive Board at the polls Tuesday and Wednesday.

Each of the five members of the executive board receive $1,531 per semester in tuition, the equivalent of 12 credit hours, from the Student Activity Fee.

The tuition waiver, however, was hardly the topic of discussion at Thursday’s debate in Buzzard Auditorium.

The 16 executive board candidates answered questions regarding their intentions for office in the company of enthused Eastern students who filled the the floor of the auditorium and overflowed into the the balcony.

Jeff Collier said Student Government needs to express student concerns directly to the administration, while Andrew Gahan said his goal is to give back to Eastern by bringing Student Government back to the students.

Ryan Berger said he would make an effort to get out in the Eastern community to connect more directly with students and local residents, and Dave Jones had a plan to “re-energize” Student Government, saying it is “not an elite club on campus” but represents of all students.

Making Eastern’s RSOs more appealing to students was a main point for all candidates for vice president for student affairs.

Kendall Patterson expressed a need to “break down barriers between RSOs” while Christopher Hightower emphasized the lack of awareness of various RSOs.

When asked how to better represent RSOs in office, Keila Lacy suggested Student Government should attend more RSO meetings and volunteer to show representation on campus. Tabitha Swain wanted to incorporate community members as RSO advisers to improve Eastern’s relationship with Charleston.

Harold “Skyler” King and Jillian Ruddy expressed interest in keeping fees as reasonable as possible.

Both Stephanie Gwillim and Chelsea Frederick were concerned about increasing student involvement and conveying the opinion of students to Faculty Senate.

Frederick pointed out the joint experience of her party and challenged audience members to imagine themselves as CEOs of a large company and consider whether they would want to “hire an employee with leadership and experience or just leadership?”

Candidates for student executive vice president discussed the Student Action Team and its role in speaking for Eastern in lobbying efforts.

Kevin Atkins said he would keep the best interest of the student body in mind as well as continuing the Faces Not Figures project and letter writing campaign to assist the team.

Shermann Thomas spoke on gaining the public’s trust by attending Charleston events.

Andrew Berger and Daniel Scheck addressed the responsibility of representing students at the Board of Trustees meetings and on campus, respectively.