Updated 8:39 pm to include explanation from Adewumi-Prisupati ticket on why they did not attend.
David Adewumi and his running mate Sri Pisupati decided not to attend the first of the two UPUA Presidential Debates on Monday night held in Alumni Hall. The other three tickets (Bard-Lennartz, Salters-Quinn and Grimes-Wentz) were present for the event.

Adewumi, who ran for the presidency last year, is thought to not be attending because of a meeting he already scheduled for his initiative, ONEPSU, which will be taking place in Thomas Building at 9:00 p.m.

He did not inform the UPUA Elections Committee of his absence until right before the debate which is why his spot was left empty as the debate started.

At the debate’s halfway point, Adewumi and Prisupati published tweets and a blog post explaining their absence.

Here’s the key excerpt from Pisupati’s blog post:

There has been a buzz about why David and I did not attend the Presidential Debate tonight. We apologize to the parties involved for our lack of attendance. It isn’t us being anti-UPUA or “sticking it to the man”. In our eyes, a debate only proves which candidates are the most convincing. However, a discussion is much more effective at creating change. Our focus has been and will continue to be getting things done, not just talking about getting things done. We think all of the candidates have great ideas, and it should be the students that decide which ideas will make a difference in their college experience through voting. We have been working on our ONEPSU initiative for months now, and we will continue to do so at events like our Presidential Forum tonight. After being pleasantly surprised to see over 50 organization Presidents show up at our last Forum on the Monday following spring break, we are convinced now more than ever that we can’t let a campaign schedule hinder the progress we are making.