The three candidates for student body president — Joseph Benigno, Michael Murtha and Isaiah Tsau — engaged in a public debate Monday to inform the student body of their respective platforms.Topics included embracing diversity on campus, increasing voter turnout in elections and bridging the gap between the student body and the Student Government Association. In the context of the Corps of Cadets appointing its first female commander Monday, the candidates were posed with the question of how to develop younger students and underrepresented groups at Texas A&M. Murtha said Aggies of all backgrounds need to have the ability to share their opinions and work together, making a Unification Council an important part of his platform.“From an early age, I had the opportunity to work with so many diverse backgrounds,” Murtha said. “Diversity doesn’t boil down to race, sexual orientation or anything else but it is still a factor we have to account for. All those different matters still deserve representation because we want to reach out. We need committee members who know all areas of campus, and we need liaisons in each area of campus.” Benigno said it is important that all students think of themselves as Aggies, not just a subset of the overall student body.“When you recognize the true attributes a person has and recognize attributes in a group, the best campaign team isn’t men or women or a certain racial group, age, class year, part of Texas — it’s all things,” Benigno said. “I think raising these people up to think of themselves as Fightin’ Texas Aggies is the most important message I can send. If you want to be here and have an opportunity to win and lead, you can.” Tsau said just looking around the debate, the effect diversity has had on campus is evident.“Debates didn’t look like this in the past,” Tsau said. “We’re not here to complain, we’re here to take initiative.  We’re trying to get involved and we are the Aggie family.” After opening statements and general questions about diversity and leadership styles, moderator Matt Josefy, former SBP and Class of 2004, directed questions at specific candidates.Murtha was posed with the question of how he would deal with future controversy in light of him abstaining on the concealed carry bill passed by Student Senate. “When the bill came up I did a lot of thinking,” Murtha said. “As a Republican I stand for concealed carry, but as a representative of the student body I vote how the students want. 57 percent of students did not want concealed carry so I couldn’t pick one side or the other to justify a vote. I didn’t want to put my own beliefs into action as a representative of 900-plus voters. In the future, I would say this needs to be a referendum because such controversial issues need to be addressed by the student body directly.” Tsau was asked about his lack of past Student Government experience. He said being involved and adaptable will help him perform his duty as potential SBP.“It’s true I was not involved in Student Senate,” Tsau said. “However, you’re going to remember your student body president at ground-level investing in your life — not policy.  I believe all policy can be replicated and duplicated and we can all still collaborate and work for the betterment of Texas A&M.” Being involved in student government since his freshman year, Benigno was asked how his administration would be different from those of past presidents.“Because I know them I’ve been able to see and think critically about them for three years now,” Benigno said. “There’s a lot they’ve done well and could do better. When an issue comes up for a student body president, I think knowing how each person dealt with issues will be valuable and I think Kyle [Kelly] had done an excellent job this year.  Because of that there is nothing major I would do differently in terms of cabinet structure and goals in SGA.” General studies freshman Angelarose Israni said she liked the idea that the candidates could bounce policy and other issues off one another, regardless of who wins the election.“I think at the end of the day, whoever is elected can take on each others’ policy,” Israni said. “When it comes to voting, I think personally I would pick the person who would be able to take on different situations because you can implement policy but I think it takes a certain type of character and person to deal with a lot of situations that the student body president has to deal with.” Human resources senior Alexandra Jung said she thinks the candidates were similar on a lot of issues, making continuity possible.“I found it interesting that a lot of things they’re running for are similar,” Jung said. “Obviously a lot of people have preferences as to what they would prefer to see in office and the fact they all seem to be good friends and have similarities, you’d think they’d have similar effects in office. They kind of allow you to give them a little bit of trust so you’re like, ‘Okay, this is who I like, this is what I really like.’ It’s just reassuring.”Polls open at 9 a.m. Thursday morning  and close at 3 p.m. Friday.Shelby Knowles — THE BATTALION Candidates Joseph Benigno (left), Michael Murtha and Isaiah Tsau fielded questions at the debate Monday.