It wasn’t a typical debate scene.

Government of the Student Body presidential candidate Drew Miller sipped on a Boulevard with lemon as he and his running mate, Jenn Riggs, waited for Monday’s GSB debate to start.

“I’m a little tense,” he said, “but hopefully, I’ll be better in about five minutes.”

Monday’s GSB presidential candidate debates were held in the Maintenance Shop, the first time in recent memory such a forum was held at a place with an open bar. The location was chosen by GSB election commissioner Clint Fichter, who said he thought the familiarity of the M-Shop would draw more spectators.

But many things about the first of the three scheduled debates were unusual — such as the outfit worn by presidential candidate Russell Graves.

Dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and a comical, checkered top hat, a look he deemed “Casual Russ,” Graves gave the appearance of a man bound for a party, but his running mate denied the look was meant to represent the campaign as a joke.

“We’re students,” said David Stout, of Graves’ appearance. “This is how students dress. We’re not going to change our act just because we’re going to a debate.”

Candidates were grilled by members of the GSB election commission on everything from their qualifications for office, their stances on issues such as tailgating and the effect of their personal views on GSB politics.

This last question, Fichter admitted, was mostly directed at the Graves/Stout slate, as Graves’ views opposing homosexuality have been addressed during the campaign. But it was also meant, he said, for Miller and Riggs, who have in the past been part of the ISU Greens.

As the debate progressed, all of the campaign slates laid down the achievements and beliefs they had been touting since the beginning of the campaign season earlier this month.

Presidential candidate Sophia Magill worked her slogan, “Working With Students,” into many of her answers, illustrating her long history of public service and her designs to bring the GSB back to its constituents. She talked about her pledge to focus on diversity issues and a proposed multicultural center, her support of the ISU Ambassadors program and Magill’s favoring of a bill passed by the senate this month raising student fees by a dollar to fund the Financial Counseling Clinic.

“The clinic is not just something that helps students while at Iowa State, but also as they go beyond it in the future,” she said.

Miller, at the risk of being seen as what he called a “one-trick pony,” repeatedly spoke of his work with last year’s voter registration drive, which he chaired. He also brought up his plans to provide entertainment for students under 21.

Miller said GSB’s greatest accomplishment lately was free-fare system for students on CyRide, and took the opportunity to mention his work with CyRide director Bob Bourne on beginning a test program to add soy-based biodiesel fuel to buses.

Dave Stout, the more vocal of the Graves/Stout slate during the forum, made an introductory speech on the low visibility of GSB and the accessibility of its president, something he thinks Graves’ popularity on campus could remedy.

“We go around campus, and ask people what GSB is, and no one knows,” Stout said. “What we’re really about is not changing the way GSB works, but how the GSB represents itself to students. GSB does these great things, and no one really knows about them.”

Graves and Stout also expressed dissatisfaction with the way university administration and GSB officials handled the changes in tailgating rules last fall, and said GSB had given up an opportunity to show its nerve against such an infringement of student rights.