Candidates for two colleges’ senate seats in the Government of the Student Body will debate Wednesday at 5 p.m.

The seven students vying for seats representing the College of Design and College of Engineering will participate in a public debate in the Pioneer Room of the Memorial Union. There are five students running for the engineering college seat: Dave Boike, Jason Carroll, Kristen Banas, Lee Edgar, and Nathan Johnson.

Three will be elected, said Edgar, senior in civil engineering, who is the only representative running for re-election.

Two students are vying for the design college seat, Jessica Nordgren and Timothy Baker.

Candidates said there are a variety of reasons for running. Some want to be more active, while others feel that better representation is needed.

“Currently I don’t feel that the clubs and organizations are being represented,” said Johnson, sophomore in chemical engineering. “The current engineer representatives are not very active. I want to do more than just relay information.”

Carroll, freshman in civil engineering, also said he felt communication is not adequate.

“I really didn’t know who the senators were and what was going on,” Carroll said.

Edgar, on the other hand, said he has previously made quality efforts to inform students of issues and get their opinions.

“The reason I’m running is because I enjoyed the term I had last year,” Edgar said. “I got a lot of response from my constituents because I would go out and talk to them and get their response.”

Most students don’t know GSB representatives have office hours and are available, he said.

“I spent half of my office hours out of the GSB office because 99.9 percent of students don’t know they can come to us,” Edgar said.

“I go to the engineering building and the library. I will actually go out and talk to them and say, `These are some of the big issues at Iowa State. What do you think?'”

Baker, sophomore in pre-architecture, filled an unexpected vacancy this semester and said it has been a great opportunity for him.

“I guess all year I’ve been looking for a good leadership opportunity,” Baker said. “I’m proud to be a part of the College of Design and work with a group that covers the entire campus who actually makes a difference.”

All of the candidates said they are interested in the issues that affect the entire campus, but plan on working to strengthen their individual departments.

Johnson said he would like to minimize class size, especially in the math classes required of engineering students.

“In the core classes there are an overabundance of people,” Johnson said.

Baker said he wants to work on bringing the College of Design together as a whole.

“I want the College of Design to be one entity,” he said.

Edgar said administrators might cut out course fees, causing students to pay more individually for materials, and he wants to keep that from happening.

“The professors would no longer be able to give out materials in class and students would have to pay approximately double to buy them at the bookstore,” he said.

More parking for students, improved security and “helping the College of Engineering be represented to the whole university” are areas Carroll said he would work on.

The candidates encouraged students to come to the debate and get to know what the issues are and how GSB can help.

“This is really [the students’] only chance to meet the candidates and they can ask us questions,” Carroll said.

Several candidates were unavailable for comment: Boike, junior in electrical engineering; Banas, senior in mechanical engineering; and Nordgren, junior in art and design.