Video coverage: View analysis and clips from last night's DSG debate

As promised, here is our unabridged video coverage of the DSG debate held yesterday night. Candidates first gave two-minute opening statements. Then, each candidate answered eight questions from John Harpham, moderator and chair of The Chronicle's independent Editorial Board. Harpham then asked each candidate a specific question, and to end the debate, each candidate presented a one-minute closing statement.

Look below for footage of the whole debate, in the order described above. Feel free to embed these on your website or link to them--especially if you're a candidate.

"Please evaluate the work of the student government of the past two years. What is its biggest accomplishment, what is its biggest failure, what initiative is ongoing that you would try to finish during the presidency?"

To see the next seven general questions, candidates' answers to their individual questions, and their closing statements, follow the jump.

"DSG is highly unusual among student governments across the country in terms of its sophistication, its public status on campus, the number of people involved, the amount of time its members devote, and the money it receives and dispenses. What are students getting out of it?"

"What is the role of the student government? Is it, above all, a programming body, a lobbying organization, a representative of the student voice, or an aid to administrators?"

"Those who criticize campus culture—from the long tradition of Reynolds Price, to the Women's Initiative, the 1992 'We Work Hard, We Play Hard' report, to the Campus Culture Initiative, to the Interim Report on the Campus Culture Initiative—they all say that campus culture is deeply problematic.

"However, they also say that change can only come from the bottom up. Well, you all want to be the president of the student body. Is there a problem with campus culture, and if there is, what should be done about it?"

"Please, candidates, don't let this question depress you. The position of student government president is an extremely taxing one. You have to stay on campus over the summer, and devote huge amounts of time to the job during the school year. You are criticized for almost everything you do, and you are scrutinized by the entire student body. What's more, you spend most of your time lobbying administrators over whom you have no power. Why do you want to be the DSG President?"

"What is the biggest challenge facing student government next year, and how will you cope with it?"

"One of the jobs of the student government president is to work more closely than any other student with the University's Board of Trustees. How transparent do you believe the University's endowment currently is, and how transparent should it be?"

"Several part of your platform deal with the relationship between the University and the City of Durham. If elected, what would be your approach to the rising tensions in the Trinity Heights neighborhood? And what would your role be in addressing this ongoing conflict?"

"In your platform, you propose to 'lobby the administration to increase summer aid allowances for students on financial aid who want to take summer classes.' First, which administrator would you go to on this issue? And second, let's say that you go to this administrator, present your case, and the administrator says to you: 'Absolutely not.' What do you do then?"

"Last year, then-President Paul Slattery and then-former DSG President Elliott Wolf lobbied for the creation of a Judicial Affairs Task Force to reform the University Judicial Code. That task force was both created and then abolished last year. Do you believe that major reform of the University's judicial code is necessary, and if so, how would you go about implementing it?"