The three candidates running for president of the Student Government Association faced off in an election debate Wednesday night.

Cain Alvey, current administrative vice president, Keyana Boka, current executive vice president, and Fort Knox senior Austin Wingate spoke on their opinions about various university issues on Wednesday.

Boka has been involved with SGA for three years and asserts that she will be completely committed to SGA if elected president.

“Overall, I am fully prepared for this,” Boka said.

Boka has several ideas for new initiatives and programs that she thinks will better the university, including creating a guest pass program for the Preston Center, establishing an official SGA international student senate position, instituting more test-prep resources for students and summer term scholarships, as well as expanding SGA’s Safe Rides service.

She said she wishes to better train SGA members so they are fully prepared for their roles and can better communicate with each other.

“That lack of training and understanding of their responsibilities and roles is something I would greatly like to see improvement on,” Boka said.

Boka would like to see more social organizations for graduate students and communicate to them more about Scholar Development grants.

Alvey said he would like to initiate programs that will enhance the lives of all Hilltoppers.

“The responsibilities of the president go far beyond what the constitution states,” said Alvey.

Alvey’s ideas include a design-a- course program, expanding Safe Rides, creating more summer term scholarships, and developing more test-prep programs.

He said if elected president he will better communicate with students what SGA and the Board of Regents are doing so that they have more knowledge of the issues facing the university.

“We need to make sure that they are knowledgeable about every university issue to ensure that we are representing them as best of a fashion as we can,” Alvey said.

When asked about the 5 percent tuition increase, Alvey said that he believes WKU can get the funds from cutting other expenditures.

Alvey is currently working with Parking and Transportation Services to add a third bus to the Safe Rides program so students will no longer have to wait 45 minutes for each bus.

Wingate, previous Speaker of the Senate for SGA, said not being a member of SGA for the past year made him more knowledgeable.

“Being that I was not a member of SGA last year gave me a chance to do something that most people don’t have the opportunity to do; be in something, get out and look at it from an outside perspective,” Wingate said.

Wingate plans to create more diversity and unity between different groups of students on campus.

“We do not have a balanced representation of students in this university,” Wingate said.

To fix that, he plans to create partnerships between SGA and other university organizations.

Wingate’s idea regarding the potential 5 percent tuition increase is that there should be more job opportunities on campus for students because the tuition increase might turn students away.

“If you’re gonna take something from somebody, give them something in return,” Wingate said.