The Associated Students, Inc. election debate Monday afternoon at the Library Quad turned into a single candidate’s personal introduction when the opponent failed to show up.

Yeimi Lopez, running for undeclared director, was prepared to participate in the noon debate when her challenger, Rahmi Karajeh, was a no-show. This gave Lopez the opportunity to address the tiny crowd gathered and urge students to vote on the four measures on this year’s ballot, including a proposed $90 increase for ASI’s Student Activity Fee.

Lopez is involved at Sacramento State as a member of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan and interns at the Multi Cultural Center, where she helped develop programs that deal with social justice issues like racism. She said that she would like to see more students on campus become involved and active in ASI programs and that that involvement is critical to fostering campus pride within the student body.

“As a student who came on campus and had a goal to get involved, I feel like that’s an issue,” Lopez said.

Lopez said that she thinks that recruitment for involvement with various campus programs needs to be more aggressive than past efforts.

“Pride is deeper than just handing out t-shirts?it goes beyond that. It needs to be cultivated and brought from within. We need to begin by having the students get involved with different programs,” Lopez said.

Julia Baum can be reached at [email protected].