Editorial

Liven The “Debate”

Although this past Wednesday’s All-School Meeting was dedicated to a Co-Presidential Forum, many of us expected something more reminiscent of a debate, such as the previous Co-Presidential Debate hosted by the Philomathean Society. We had hoped that the Forum would be a chance to learn more about the candidate pairs than what had previously been stated in their platforms and interviews.

It is our belief, however, that this opportunity was largely allowed to go to waste. The forum was a tepid, overly courteous exchange that revealed little more than the candidates’ abilities to make the crowd giggle which, while amusing, should not have been the ultimate takeaway from any Co-Presidential Forum or Debate preceding an election. There was very little point in asking the candidate pairs questions that prompted responses one could easily glean from reading their platforms. The pairs’ answers were topical and scratched only the surface of the issue and did not provide the audience with in-depth answers. The forum should have focused on comparing the merits of each platform and each pair so as to give students a chance to objectively decide which pair should serve Andover for the next academic year.

Furthermore, there was a lack of time dedicated to the Forum itself. Although a little introductory fanfare is appreciated, the amount of pageantry prior to the commencement of the actual forum took away valuable time that could have alternatively been used to ask a couple more questions and further inform students of the qualities and details of the candidate pairs and their platforms.

We already know what the candidate pairs plan to do on their own – the Forum should have focused on comparing each of the pairs’ platforms and ideas so as to give the student body a better perception of which pair might actually be prepared to lead Andover.
It is essential that our student leadership is taken seriously by both the participants and the student body. We have no doubt that both candidate pairs take their potential roles very seriously, but we believe that a better executed event would have gone a long way in ensuring that the student body feels the same.

This editorial represents the views of The Phillipian Editorial Board CXXXVIII.