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Show Most subversise art movement in Utah Valley history V MAGAZINE V5 A Casper family affair SPORTS B1 One year later part two IJ EV I EW THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT VOICE 111 14 =\/ • .NJ J .14 rd°11 /A The Elections Committee determines punishment for candidate infractions. ■ GILBERTCHISNEROS/UVU REVIEW UVUSA campaign team refutes guilt, refuses comment This year's election included new adjustments for social media, which has become an integral campaigning tool. GILBERT CISNEROS/UVU REVIEW Behind the election scene BY ANDREA WHATCOTT Editor-in-Chief Before student body election packets were even due on Feb. 6, the elections committee was being put together to prepare for the upcoming campaigns and voting with the purpose of overseeing the 2012-2013 elections on campus. The role of the elections committee, according to Director of Student Activities Beka Grulich, is to ensure that the election and campaign rules are upheld. If rules are broken, it is the committee's responsibility to assess the situation and determine appropriate penalties, according to Phil Clegg, assistant dean of students. "If someone doesn't oversee the rules, chaos ensues," Grulich said. Each year before the committee is formed, the student council reviews the election by-laws and make any necessary adjustments. According to Clegg, there were only minor changes made for this year's elections. One such adjustment was the addition of social media rules, as it is a newer tool for campaigners. Just as officials change each year, so does the committee. "The committee is invited and appointed by the student body president," Clegg said. Typically the committee is chaired by the Student Body President, but from time to time they will turn it over to another member of student government. according to Clegg. This year the chair of the elections committee is Joe A forgotten historic figure BY JONATHAN BOLDT UVU correspondent George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Paul Revere and ... Wentworth Cheswell? Most people would be at a loss for the last man named, but had the British gone north instead of west it would have been Cheswell known for his midnight ride to alert the masses that, "the red-coats are coming!" Cheswell's northern ride was responsible for reinforcements arriving to fight in the battle of Lexington, and in part, helped to secure victory for the revolutionary forces. Not only was Cheswell intimately involved with the revolution, he was also the first AfricanAmerican elected to public office. The shot heard 'round the world could have easily been his historic election, but why do so many people furrow their brow and stare blankly when told his story? Black History Month gives students the chance to think about the rich and powerful stories that aren't taught in schools and seem to be forgotten in the public mind. Black history has been taught from kindergarten as mainly the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, as well as Harriet Tubman and George Washington Carver. All of these pioneers deserve as much praise and study as they receive, if not more. The history of America would not be worth the paper it's written on had it not been for the efforts of blacks fighting alongside whites from its inception, and it's a tragedy that the stories of many heroes goes unnoticed by so many. Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze was a German-born artist who grew up in America and later returned to Germany as an adult. His best-known work is "The Crossing of the Delaware," but not as well HISTORIC A4 Jurisic, who is currently the vice president of Student Activities, Jurisic replaced John McClure, who is Chris Loumeau, Student Body President's assistant. McClure stepped down as chair because of scheduling conflicts during the week of elections, but remains on the committee. McClure assembled the committee, with consideration from Student Life advisors and the approval of Loumeau in December 2012. Each year the chair works to include a range of members on the committee, including staff, faculty and students. In addition to upholding election rules, the committee will "handle the details of the elections, work with IT to make sure the ballots are working and schedule space at the school," Grulich said. Space is needed for the de- bates, as well as campaigning. Once the voting has closed, the committee is also charged with going through write-in ballots to assess whether they are valid and then count the number of votes each write-in may receive. In an effort to avoid having only one team run this year, Grulich, at the request of Cory Duckworth, vice president of Student Affairs, began recruiting earlier by holding informational sessions during leadership day in August 2011, as well as another meeting mid-semester. "The hope was to reach out to those interested in student government," Grulich said. This year, three teams will be running for student office and today the team names and group members were released by the elections committee. uvu College of SCIENCE &HEALTH UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY PHOTO COURTESY OF UVU COLLEGE OF SCIENCE Built on foundations of science The College of Science and Health has plans to be one of the best in the west, and the new science building is the key BY JOHN CARLSEN Staff Writer When the new science building opens its doors in April, the College of Science and Health gains not only a new building, but also an improvement to the programs that will occupy it. From astronomy to zoology, every science program will benefit from the new building To equip the new building, the College of Sci- ence and Health will apply for grants to raise funds. Eventually, the building will house at least two electron microscopes in addition to many other equipment improvements in the future. There will also be new, advanced chemistry instruments to help the institution get American Chemical Society Accreditation. The building will help undergraduate students receive mentoring and guidance as they pursue research for their degrees. This is necessary if students are to have the much-needed experience required for work after they graduate. There has been limited space for these activities until now. There will SCIENCE A4 BY JEFF JACOBSEN Online Content Manager Evidence surfaced last week suggesting that members of this year's UVUSA Student Council, some of whom will be running in elections for next year's Student Body Presidency, sponsored a campaign event via Facebook that did not have the necessary approval of the Elections Committee. According to election rules, both the Facebook event page as well as confirmed event activities were violations. The validity of this infraction has since been refuted by numerous respondents in the form of comment posts on the online version of last week's article. Amidst the slew of comments spurred by this and other articles about the incumbent UVUSA team, one comment under the name "David Millet" indicated that Millet "would love to sit down with any one of you and tell you exactly how me and my team did not break any rules and how the elections committee also agrees with this." Upon sitting down with Vice President of Academics David Millet, he declined comment on the situation. When asked over the phone about the situation, Millet's assistant Daniel Diaz, who was listed as one of the coauthors on the Facebook page in question, also declined comment. Both Diaz and Millet mentioned that they were concerned that their words would be used inappropriately, twisted or otherwise misconstrued by the UVU Review. Also, Millet declined when presented with the opportunity to publish an unaltered written statement in this issue. Upon further investigation, Director of Student Activities and Advisor to the Elections Committee Rebeka Grulich was asked about the event and its implications. According to Grulich, the committee was already aware of the event. "The Election Committee has already dealt with that issue and I can't really comment on it," Grulich said. Grulich insisted that releasing "current grievances" before the election would not be fair to any of the teams. Doing that, she said, would set up candidates for an "unfair attack" from their competitors. Grulich reported that there has yet to be a campaign free of infractions from candidates. "That's the nature of what politics is," Grulich said. "You have your interpretation of the rules and move forward and it's up to the governing election body to agree or disagree with the candidate's interpretation of the rules." But as part of the Elections Committee, Grulich argues, it is not her job to call attention to rule violations. The responsibility to get correct information about alleged infractions to student voters, she said, rests on the individual parties. To her, "it's common sense" and promotes a "level playing field" for the candidates. Assistant VP of Student Life and Dean of Students Bob Rasmussen admitted not knowing what it meant that the Elections Committee "dealt with" the issue, but he did say that events like the one in question are not always intended for direct campaigning. "To have campaign parties where you invite people to be part of your campaign has been done for the 15 years I've been involved," Rasmussen said. The intentions of this event are unclear amidst the apparent infractions incurred by the existence of the Facebook event page. Unless Millet and his team divulge the event details, the lack of clarity will remain until after next year's governing body has already been elected. Rasmussen explained how the Elections Committee typically deals with complaints and infractions. The committee waits until the week before the campaign time starts before gathering "all the complaints from all the other parties," and takes them into consideration before making decisions about possible punishments. Punishments, if assigned, will most likely be a restriction that either takes violating teams "off the hallways" for a few hours or gives them poor location placement during campaign week. |