About 30 students came to watch as Associated Students Inc. candidates for executive vice president and vice president of Finance debated on Wednesday.

Robert Linch and Roberto Torres, candidates for executive vice president, faced off before the crowd, the largest audience for any ASI debate this semester.

Moderator Erika Alatorre, director of the ASI Office of Governmental Affairs, asked both candidates what they would do to get students involved if elected.

Linch, current director of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies, said “first I’d like to point out that most of the members on Action slate are in fact incumbents and the fact that they haven’t already taken action sort of speaks to that.”

Members of the audience laughed or made noise in response and Linch added that he wants to make ASI more visible and increase student outreach.

Torres, current ASI secretary of State Affairs, said he agreed that more grassroots efforts need to take place to make the connection between ASI and the students. He said if students have a problem, he wants them to understand ASI has an open door policy and voice their concerns.

Alatorre also asked candidates what programs currently offered by ASI they would want to change.

Linch said he wants to increase Safe Rides to seven days per week, instead of the three nights per week currently offered, in order to protect the community and allow students a safe way to get home. The program provides staff, faculty and students confidential and safe rides home and aims to prevent drinking and driving.

Linch also wants to make the ASI webpage more accessible and easy to navigate.

Torres said he wants to revamp the Green Sting program to instill a sense of campus pride in Sacramento State students.

“Why is that when you walk around (you see) UCLA sweaters? That shouldn’t be the case. It should be that every sweater or every shirt that has a campus (name) on it says Sac State or has letters from your fraternity or sorority that are from Sac State,” Torres said.

Torres said he also wants to revamp the Student Life and Services to focus more on providing services instead of leadership, and look into creating a University Hour where no classes will be held so students can explore the campus and programs.

Incumbent Vice President of Finance Tim Snyder, who is running unopposed, began by explaining his role: to ensure funds are in place for events and manage the money coming in from students.

Snyder said he wants to make the preliminary ASI budget more accessible and understandable to students this year.

When asked why he hadn’t aimed to do this during his current directorship on ASI, Snyder said he was currently educating students on the budget and put the budget online, but wanted to educate on a larger scale.

“I think my approach was not successful,” Snyder said. “To a degree it was successful. I’ve had wonderful conversations with a number of students regarding the budget and where our money goes.

“To do it on a larger scale I’ve understood that I need to take the budget document and sit down and make a glossary of terms so students can understand what this means.”

He also said he has answers to questions on the budget he didn’t have at the beginning of his directorship, and if elected will spend time trying to make the budget more accessible.

Full video coverage of the debates can be found through the ASI Voting website at www.asi.csus.edu/vote.asp..