The Reporter

wed issue P c volume '^mm^^^^^msiimm^s^sm ecti Bryan Funk SGA REPORTER CAMILLE BILLY / THE REPORTER Candidates Marie Villard and Will Stoetzer on the left and candidates Nate Davis with running-mate Dyleeng Beach on the right compete at debate. om debates speech in light of the recent "Common Sense" and blackface incidents, Davis voiced his support for unlimited freedom of speech, but cited student contracts that forbade the defamation of the school as the contributing issue in the "Common Sense" and blackface incidents. Stoetzer also claimed dedication to student's rights, and affirmed that he felt that "Common Sense" and other vehicles of speech ought to be able to express themselves freely. Further, he felt that entities like the Reporter and WHAT radio should be protected,,as they serve vital roles in putting forth a variety of ideals and opinions which contribute to campus diversity. Both candidates affirmed their support for The university's role in ICUF, with Villard stressing her and Stoetzer's experience at this year's "ICUF Student Alliance", and said that they would work to bring in more schools not already a part of ICUF, and to continue the Faces of FRAG campaign, which has direct monetary benefits for students who are residents of Florida. Davis, in turn, established his key role in planning the current administration's initiatives with ICUF, and pledged continued support for ICUF and the university's role in it, as well as a desire to expanding that role and the role of ICUF as a lobby for the independent colleges of Florida and their students. Regarding students in residence halls, both tickets placed a heavy emphasis on students' health, promising to work towards clean ventilation and improved air quality. Davis later cited his success in having the ventilations systems of his fraternity house cleaned out, and the improvement it made for the residents there. See DEBATES, 3A ' On Wednesday, March 29, the Stetson Room of the CUB hosted the first of two debates featuring this year's candidates for president and vice-president of the Student Government Association (SGA). The debate was preceded by SGA's weekly senate session. One major announcement was the faculty's approval of making the honors system permanent as its three year probationary period comes to and end. Students will be able to vote on that same issue during the upcoming SGA elections, to be held on Wednesday, April 5. The other primary issue raised was an amendment to SGA's constitution that would establish representation in the student senate for the new residence hall and the student apartments. The amendment, which passed 54 to 0, will give both of those halls two representatives in next year's senate. The debate began at 8:30pm. The debate included questions from a panel made up of the SGA Elections Committee as well as students in attendance. Candidates were each given a period to respond and once both tickets had spoken, a chance at rebuttal. Having won the initial coin toss, Will Stoetzer chose to introduce his platform first, along with his running mate Barbara "Marie" Villard. In their opening remarks, Stoetzer and Villard brought up a number of issues around which their platform was based. Said Stoetzer, "We will be addressing health issues on campus, specifically STI testing, women's health, and Greek housing issues. We will sit down with the administration and look at changes to the policies dealing with Public Safety funding, and we will strive for a friendlier parking policy for residents who have visitors on the weekend." Stoetzer also promised to continue current SAFAC reforms and develop various co-programming events between SGA and other student organizations. Regarding dining options on campus, Stoetzer said, "We will do our utmost to increase the number of options for vegetarians and those that are lactose intolerant, as well as creating a variation of food in the Commons and Hat Rack." He also claimed that, "We will advocate for more 24 hour spaces on campus, we will focus specifically on areas already capable of* maintaining such hours." Additionally, Stoetzer promised to build on the university's role as vice- chair of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida. This includes continuing successful campaigns from this year. "The current Faces of FRAG campaign has been incredibly successful, we're going to continue the strides taken by the current administration by pushing the Faces of FRAG campaign." Finally, Stoetzer promised to continue the university's dedication to social responsibility by increasing the number of recycling bins on campus and continuing to work with the Workers Rights Consortium. During his introductory remarks, presidential candidate Nate Davis, paired with running mate Dyleeng Beach, expounded on his successful efforts to raise SGA membership from about 45 senators last year, to over 100 this year as well as his desire as president to maintain and better exploit those gains and the resources they provide. "Despite our record membership, I was disappointed that our committees did not accomplish more. As president, I will coordinate additional leadership training for the officers and committee chairs to ensure that they are better equipped to utilize the potential of our larger student government." Beach spoke on her potential role as vice-president. "The vice-president is what connects the students to the senate, and the senate to the president. It is a job that extends further than calling senate sessions to order, it also requires communication and cooperation." Of their platform, Davis said, "Our platform consists of many things, including parking reform, public safety issues, building bridges throughout the Stetson community, monthly town hall forums for all students, monthly campus leadership forums, and FRAG. It is through these initiatives that we can lead the students to achieve more." When questioned about their thoughts on student's freedom of .onor council expects *enew Chris Evans news writer Yesterday, the students of the university voted on permanency for the Honors System after a three-year trial period. The student vote is the final approval of the system. On March 24, the faculty approved permanency 63-2. Two days earlier, the yes vote from SGA was unanimous. Sophomore biochemistry major, Honors System council member, and SGA Vice President Christina Schafer was confident the measure would pass, touting the benefits of having the current Honors System over the old. She said, in the old system, "a professor had total say over what happened to a student's grade without any kind of process for the student to appeal." For the past three years, the Honors System council, which is comprised of a president, vice president, secretary, and seven members at large, has provided a peer-review system where students accused of academic dishonesty are referred. Cases are then assigned to one of the seven non-officers to investigate. The investigator goes to the professor first, then to the accused. If a violation did occur, the council would then deliberate on one of two sanctions. According to Schafer, the first sanction is punitive, directly affecting the- student's grade. The second is an "educational sanction," which is designed to prevent the student from making the same mistake again. "I'd call it a qualified success," says statistics professor and the council's faculty advisor, Dr. John Rasp. "Clearly we still have an element of academic dishonesty on campus, but there is significantly more discussion on the issue." The Honor System started as a student initiative, Rasp recalls. "That's the strength of the system here; it began as a student proposal in SGA." Rasp sees two benefits to the system, the first being the peer hearing process. He sees the value in students "helping hold each other accountable." The second benefit is the centralized reporting. "In the past," he said, "a student could cheat in several different classes and teachers would not know about the other offenses." With centralized reporting, a student who cheats in two different classes could be tracked as a multiple offender, and a harsher punishment could be implemented. "I think that the students who have gone through the process, even though it's not always very pleasant, appreciate the professionalism with which it's done," said Schafer. "It allows students to really take an ownership of their education and feel like they've contributed something." SGA approved the continuation of the system with two stipulations. The first was that the council take into consideration allowing the appointment by SGA of a review committee. The second was that every three years, the SGA academic affairs committee would take a look at the system to analyze how well it is working and to see if anything can be improved. Contact Chris Evans at [email protected]. , ~3^_ < CAMILLE BILLY / THE REPORTER Candidates Davis and Beach listen intently to questions delivered to them by the election committee. Ahonor Trista Etheridge news writer The university's Student Government Association (SGA) has recently been elected as the Vice Chair for all the student governments in the Interde- • pendent Colleges and Universities of Florida (ICUF) organization. Having accepted this award, SGA is responsible for organizing a convention inviting other Florida schools' governments and discussing important affairs such as the Florida Resident Access Grant, or FRAG. ICUF is made up of twenty-eight private institutions of higher learning. There are more than 180 campuses statewide. The schools in ICUF give eighty-five percent of their students' fi nancial aid, while receiving only three percent of the state's funding for higher education schools. One third of the state's degrees come from ICUF schools, and this university is a proud member of this prestigious collaboration. . Editorials published in Stuart News and Jupiter Courier point out that subsidizing for a public university student quadruples the cost for a private college student to receive the FRAG. In an ICUF report for this month, Eckerd College President Donald R. Eastman III pointed out reasons for increasing the value of the FRAG, saying "The ICUF are producing graduates who have been educated to fill critical workforce needs in Florida." First year political science and German major Drew Glasnovich said during an interview, "The biggest thing we're dealing with right now is FRAG Last year [they awarded] each student [with] $2300, this year we got it up to...$2850. That's really good-so now this year we're [trying for] $3000." Organization was a point Glasnovich stressed, saying with an upward swoop of his arm, "Stetson's student government is up here, compared to the other schools...as far as organization." Minutes recorded in an SGA meeting last November reveal that the university has not only the second largest student governing body, but the smallest budget. This fact does not hinder our SGA from having the highest standards out of all ICUF institutions. "I would say that the efforts by the Stetson Student Government Association this past year and last year as well has been awesome. They have been very engaged in getting the message to legislators about the value of FRAG and how much it means to our students. The Faces of FRAG follow up to our earlier printing of the book of this name is a valuable addition to our message," praised E.D. Moore, Executive Director of ICUF, when asked about the selection of our university as vice chair of the Student Alliance branch. The setup for ICUF is split up; one See CONFERENCE, 24 Wednesday's Forecast Sunny -.. V '% High 81 .a* Low 53 -'Sv>; -i' a'--? 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 GOVERNMENT 3 A MOVIE LISTINGS 3B Find out what happened at Movie critic Blair Townley the Block Party and who reviews "V for Vendetta." was crowned Homecoming PAGE 3B King and Queen PAGE 1B mien's "sennas Jim Burleson writes on Men's competition during Senior Day. PAGE 1C