The Mugdown hosted a yell leader debate in the MSC Flag Room Wednesday, merging humor with more serious questions for candidates in attendance.
The six yell leader candidates who attended the debate answered questions from Benjamin Dierker, moderator and editor-in-chief of the The Mugdown, an A&M satirical online publication. Candidates answered questions from Dieker and then from members of the audience. The Corps of Cadets’ “Five for Yell” candidates did not attend the debate, but The Mugdown filled their allotted empty seats with a cardboard cutout of wrestler John Cena.
One of the more serious questions of the evening dealt with whether any of the candidates believed women should run for yell leader or not.
“A lot of people like to say that the yell leaders being all male is part of the tradition, and I like to tell people that it’s just a happy coincidence,” said Kaitlyn McCain, education junior and senior yell leader candidate. “It leaves it open to interpretation that women can be yell leaders and we will eventually have a [female] yell leader. It’s going to happen.”
One student in the audience asked the candidates if they would use their influence as yell leader to address the recent race issues on campus.
“I think it’s something that as a university, we had a really strong response to,” said Joshua Sutton, senior yell leader candidate, food science and technology junior and Corps member. “But I don’t think that was adequate enough. I think that we also need to continue to change and continue to evolve in that sense.”
Other questions included favorite propaganda sign, least favorite tradition, if they believed in dinosaurs and if they would supply a birth certificate.    
Dierker said he felt the debate went well, and was pleased with the audience turnout and interaction.
“It did get a little weird, but that’s what we were hoping for,” Dierker said. “We wanted to show the personality of each of the candidates, and I think we were able to do that. We wanted to make sure that, through humor, which is what The Mugdown does, we could get real points across.”
The debate was recorded and can be viewed on The Mugdown’s YouTube channel.