The Reporter

thurs apr-o6 http://stetson.edu/, New scholarships award students zero money Michael Riggs managing editor Approximately 80% of Stetson students receive some form of financial aid, whether through athletics, music, academic or need-based qualification. One of the more recently publicized aid programs is the Named scholars program. The Named scholarships are funded by alumni who can donate to already named scholarships, which are then received by students who are academic achievers in their major. Some students, however, are confused by the named scholarships. Which, in addition to encouraging insincerely close personal relationships with the donors, don't actually give students any additional aid. Samuel Pritchett, a first-year English major, received a Named scholarship from Stetson, but instead of receiving additional funds, he'simply had one scholarship reduced by the same amount as his Named scholarship. "The [financial aid office] provided a list of incentives... [But] the list did not include money. What kind of scholarship doesn't involve money?" Pritchett is not alone in his frustra- Fountain pranks cause more taraMe then fun Marie Villard news writer Over the years, Holler Fountain has been the target of pranks from soap suds to red dye. However, each time a practical joke is played, the cost to repair and clean up is costly. In the past week, Holler Fountain has experienced two vandalisms in .a row. The first incident was laundry detergent added to the water, and the second one was the addition of red food coloring to the water which the vandal added the day after the fountain had been cleaned. "There are three issues that are associated with the vandalism and the cleaning up of the Holler Fountain; cost, service, and the environmental issues," said Ron Roux, Director of Campus Maintenance and Operations, "the campus needs to realize that in vandalizing the fountain, we are not doing other services for the community that we should be doing." When the soap gets added to the fountain, it builds up in the drainage and the pipes; sometimes clarifiers can be used, but most of the time it calls for drainage. The problem with the dye in the fountain is that it stains the basin of the fountain, and in order to clean it, they either bleach it or sometimes even repaint it. tion. Another student, a third-year who wished to remain anonymous, was frustrated at what the juggling of funds represents: "Stetson, regardless of how much money it collects from philanthropic alumni, is still unwilling to modify its scholarship policy to the benefit of students. If some generous alumnus was to donate a cool million—some higher up, squirreled away in a posh office somewhere, would still find a way to justify hitting the school's best students with thousands of dollars in charges." Also of frustration to students such as Pritchett, is the expectation that new scholars play the gracious recipient. "[My] letter told me I'd be expected to turn tricks throughout the year, such as dinners, questionnaires, thank you letters; even a quote for advertisements. What kind of thank you letter does Stetson expect me to send? 'Thank you Homer and Dolly Hand, but your donation was actually absorbed by Stetson'." The same anonymous student said that it was frustrating to play the gracious recipient for a very different reason. "It was almost a little embarrassing. My donors took me out for a nice dinner and told me over and over how See SCHOLARSHIP, 3A The process of cleaning the fountain is not easy by any means; it takes almost eight to ten hours of labor and drainage for over 10,000 gallons of water. Every year, according to Roux, the fountain is vandalized, on average, 15- 20 different times. Each time the fountain is drained, the water runs out of the back of Sampson Hall and into the road by Presser Hall. The water cost is truly insignificant compared to the labor costs, which is about $18.50 per hour when you as in Federal Taxes, Workers' Compensation costs, and Medicare. The cost of the water is in the range of $30-35 each time it is refilled, but the labor costs are anywhere from $160-200 per person on duty. Overall, yearly, the University spends over $4,000 on refilling the fountain, and repairing it from vandalisms. "The fountain vandalisms happen most often on Thursday nights, more in the spring than in the fall semester," said Ron Roux, "From a service standpoint, whether the vandalisms are in the Frat houses or at the fountain, it is a labor opportunity cost we are looking at, which comes out of the operational budget, which, in turn, comes from your tuition. If we weren't servicing See FOUNTAIN, 3A KIM LYLE / THE REPORTER The fountain was dyed red, the second fountain vandalization in a week. '.S_^ 2007 Bryan Funk SGA REPORTER From 9:00 in the morning until 8:00 in the evening on Wednesday, April 5, the front of the CUB was dominated by a booth and its Student Government Association (SGA) staffers, taking votes for next year's president and vice president. Students were also able to cast their opinion on the permanency of the honors council, already affirmed by wide margins by both the SGA senate and faculty. Results came soon after the close of voting. Will Stoetzer, sophomore humanities major, and Marie Villard, sophomore business major, won the vote for president and vice-president, respectively, of SGA. They received 438 votes compared to the 259 cast for the ticket of Nate Davis, junior management major, and Dyleeng Beach, a junior political science major. Despite early concerns, the honors system was affirmed by a vast majority of students, earning 627 votes for its permanence to 70 against. This marks the end of the program's three year probationary period and the beginning of the honors council as a permanent fixture at the university. Reflecting on the election, Kevin Winchell, a junior political science major, said, "It was interesting to see the change in campaigning this year. Both tickets attempted a more private, one- on-one campaign strategy that sought endorsements and used diplomacy, rather than the typical public, in-your- face bombardment of flyers, posters and signs across campus. The turnout is comparable to previous years, so it seems that these new campaigning practices haven't supplemented, so much as replaced, the more traditional methods." After celebrating with his campaign staff at Late Night, where the election results were announced, Stoetzer said the following via email, "I want to sincerely thank everyone for coming out to vote yesterday, more than anything a good voter turnout is good for Student Government. I also want to thank Nate Davis for a great campaigning process and for his dedication to the stu- dents at Stetson. Marie and I are committed to serve the student here and we look forward to the opportunity to continue our work and implement our vision." Offering some final words on SGA, the elections, and next year, Winchell said, The entire campaigning session went very smoothly with little incident. Both tickets were very fair, honest and positive in their actions during this entire process. This makes a big difference, considering that this 'Marie and I are committed to serve the students here and we look forward to the opportunity to continue our work and implement our vision.' WILL STOETZER future sga president may be the most important SGA election in the last few decades. "Over the last two years, Peter has led SGA to a level that it could not have reached otherwise; now that we have such a strong relationship with the administration, we have been able to accomplish more for every student at Stetson - thus enhancing our legitimacy. It will be up to future administrations, especially Will and Marie's, to ensure that we don't take this newfound legitimacy and power for granted. That would be my own piece of advice for Will and Marie: strive for SGA and don't take its success for granted." Contact Brian bfunk@stetson edu. Funk at CAMILLE BILLY / THE REPORTER Ballots being taken in front of the CUB on Election Day. Thursday's Forecast!: Mostly Sunny:,;-, ^JLj;. # High 80 , ": A " *'-\*" . Low 58 ** rP ..." r-"r -w*^1' m -'* \ ' -?i ^*%- * "^ .."*F. ~i -''i '-ft u CALENDAR 3B NEWS 2A CROSSWORD 2B NEWSMAKERS 3A HISTORY 2B OPINIONS 4A HOROSCOPE 2B RUMINATIONS 2B LIFE IB MOVIE REVIEW 3B METRO REPORT 2A STUDENT G0VERNMENT3A MOVIE LISTINGS 3B Greek Week Find out what was successful and unsuccessful about this year's Greek Week. PAGE 1B SSf_"%«- a? M-^* \ 'iV,-* V % ■.-,* J^ Movie critic Blair Townley writes how cool "Ice Age 2" is this year. PAGE 3B Michael Hodges reports on how the Hatters got the 5-0 win. PAGE 1C