The Reporter

WHAT'S Two Fulbright lecturers to teach courses By Bryan Funk EDITOR-IN-CHIEF For the first time, the university will be playing host to two Fulbright scholars next year. Faten Bent Abderazak Mokaddem of Tunis, Tunisia and Greyson G Mhilu of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, will both be lending their unique perspectives to the university's students and faculty. The Fulbright program was founded in 1946 by former senator J. William Fulbright. Funded by the United States government, it provides the opportunity for more than 4,500 participants annually, all chosen based on merit, to study and learn in other countries. The university has been working towards participating in the Fulbright program, and this year is not only receiving two scholars to host, but is also sending Dr. Jennifer Foo, Associate Professor of Finance, to a lecturing position in Poland. The two Fulbright scholars will be staying for the length of the school year, and both will likely be teaching classes. Mhilu will be teaching his native Swahili under the Africana Studies department, and Mokaddem will be teaching Arabic as part of the Modern Languages Department. Said Dean Grady Ballenger ofthe College of Arts and Sciences, "The great thing is, here we are, this little town in Florida, this little town and this small university, we're going to have this wonderful exchange, with one faculty member going out and two young lecturers coming in to be part of the international community, and in two areas where we acknowledge we want to continue diversifying our curriculum." Continuing about Mokaddem, Ballenger said that she would be "...a sort of ambassador for Arab culture at a particularly crucial time for Americans to understand what Arab culture is and is not, what Islam is and is not, and because this person happens to be a woman, what Islam means to a contemporary woman." The new courses will be created with already existing numbers. The Swahili course will be listed as Special Topics in Africana Studies, AFS 296. The Arabic course will be listed as FL 101, Introduction to Arabic. News 2a Opinions 4& Life ib Sports 5 s Etcetera 6 a issue 2i volume "1 i * SPORTS" Softball splits games against Bulldogs page %h $ OPINIONS; New policy makes waste mandatory at Stetson page 'pf^Af1^^fTS_| see ¥ 3R!GKT,pag&2a ^Reporter Corrections 1. "Delta Sigma Phi chapter receives new charter," NEWS, Issue 20. Chris Eder was incorrectly listed as being a brother of Delta Sigma Phi. He is a pledge of the fraternity. 2. "Owls squeak by Hatters in the 9th," SPORTS, Issue 20. The photos were taken by Mike Lynch, not Robert Presley. C ONTACT U S 421 N. Woodland Blvd. #8409 DeLand, FL 32720-3751 386.822.7224 FAX 386.822.7233 reporter^ stetson.edu reportcr_ne\vs'# stetson.edu opinions^. stetson.edu hfe'«sstetson.edu etcetera^ stetson, edu sportsfj'f-s tetson.edu online ^stetson.edu advertised" stetson.edu SGA slsc^iop.s 369 "no " votes and 23 7 "yes " votes require a second election to be held A "i.-1 • * it'- v.»: 'MA -" . -O* * ™a ^'.laSsS1' ,0v * *. »- TURNOUT: A surprisingly large number of students voted in the first, highly disputed, Student Government Association presidential election, photo by bryan funk By Liz Erlenbach NEWS EDITOR 1~>»-J he Student Govern ment Association presidential election on April 7th resulted in an unprecedented second election, to be held today, April 21st. This second election resulted from more students voted no than yes to unopposed candidates Peter Urscheler and Ryan Hutson. Urscheler, a junior marketing major, and Hutson, a first-year political science major, were running unopposed in a hotly debated election that divided the SGA. Current president, junior political science major Michael Davis, and his running mate, sophomore discovery student Maureen O'Shaughnessy, were not permitted to run in the election when Davis submitted their application late. On the day of the elections, flyers could be seen hung around the Carlton Union Building with Davis' picture on them encouraging students not to write his name on the ballot, but rather to vote no in the election. "At an ISA meeting the day before, Jay [Patel] explained that if we write my name in, write-ins would not be counted... it was a waste of a vote," said Davis. For this reason, he said, he encouraged students to vote no. "There's kind of a kink in the constitutional bylaws about campaigning, and when and where, and to what extent. If you're officially running, then there's all sorts of provisions, like you can't on the day of the election campaign in front of the CUB," said Kevin Hanson, junior philosophy major and chair of the elections committee. However, since Davis was not an official candidate in the election, no such rules existed. "In Mike's case, he was utilizing a loophole, because he knew none of those rules applied," said Hanson. According to the Student Government constitution, if a candidate is running for president unopposed, a vote of confidence is held, in which the students are asked whether they want the candidate to be president. If there are more yes votes than no votes, then the candidate is elected. However, if there are more no votes than yes votes, another election is required to take place, open to more candidates. According to Hanson, voter turnout was higher than expected. "People weren't voting against Peter and Ryan, but against the election. They're getting what they voted for." "We had ordered a thousand ballots and hadn't expected to fill half of them. We really exceeded our expectations," said Hanson. There were a total of 607 votes in the election. There were 369 no votes, 237 yes votes, and 1 write-in vote. "It was good at least to see people active, caring about which way people voted and expressing interest," said Hanson. • The votes were tallied on Wednesday night and the results were posted on the door of the SGA office that night, after being signed by the five members of the elections committee as well as advisor to the elections committee and SGA, Associate Dean of Students, Darald Stubbs. That evening, Takeata King Pang, the chair of the elections committee up to that point, resigned from her post. "She fulfilled her responsibilities as elections committee chair. After we —__s_____==_______: went through and verified the count for the first election, obviously there was no winner from that, so that meant the elections committee would have to continue their role and establish a new timeline and procedure for that to happen. Takeata is a senior and she has her senior research and things to complete... She didn't expect for it to be continuing further," said Stubbs. Pang refused to comment about her reasons for resigning. That evening, the three remaining members of the committee, Hanson, Jonathan Martin,- and Randall Judt elected Hanson _ as the new chair of the com- . mittee. The election situation was unprecedented, according to Hanson and Stubbs. "I don't know in the history of the university, but in the time I've been here, that's never happened," said Stubbs. In the race today, Urscheler and Hutson are running again, with Davis and O'Shaughnessy, as well as Karl Canty and Bryan Lauer, opposing them. Canty and Lauer were placed on the ballot officially on Friday night, after submitting their application by the deadline. However, when their application was submitted, the administration refused to give it to the elections committee because Lauer is VOTE: A student places his ballot into the official ballot box on Apr. 7. photo by bryan funk not a student in good standing with the university. According to the Connections handbook, students who are not in good standing with the university are not permitted to hold office. However, according to Hanson, there is no rule- in the SGA constitution preventing students who are not in good standing from running in the election. "As an elections committee, due to several reasons, we being a body that is largely delegated the responsibility of interpreting the constitution, it says he can be elected to office. So we felt that he should at least be able to be elected," he said. However, if Canty and Lauer are elected, Lauer would most likely be removed from office by the administration. "Michelle Espinosa has said that... he will never be al- zz=zz==s=s— lowed to hold office at Stetson," said Hanson. Canty, a senior political science major, would then appoint a new vice- president if elected. Then, when he graduates in December, the appointed vice-president would become president. Canty did not see this as something that should prevent him from being elected, however. "I certainly think that the platform we're running on would be the platform that anyone in the administration would be running on... The goals would be the same," he said. Reaction to the election results has been generally positive, according to Hanson. "People weren't voting against Peter and Ryan, but against the election. They're getting what they voted for, which is always a good thing. So while it's kind of stressful to have to come up with another election, elect a new chair, and do all this over again, democracy is worth that price," he said. Davis was pleased with the results as well. "I was happy, I felt that the students made the right decision, and I was so glad that I'd left it for the students to decide," he said. Canty was additionally happy with the results. "I was pleasantly surprised. I think the student body voted and said that they were in favor of having more than one choice," he said. "We definitely were not disappointed. We most definitely plan to continue on, and we're hoping to continue to connect with the students. We feci that the election process now will help to legitimize the organization," said Urscheler. Hutson said, "We did everything we could as candidates the first time, and the students showed that they didn't like us running unopposed. So now, with other candidates, we'll run again and see what the students decide." The second election will be held today from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. in front of the Carlton Union Building. Contact Liz Erlenbach at [email protected]. ^ v$ * V •^a ■*•- $> j&ksjti&ffiigSto-* Utimi