NEWS IN BRIEF

Student government approves new presidential election

After rejecting the election results on Monday, April 10, over questions about the electoral process, Student Government has chosen to hold a new election.

The senate did approve all other election results for the uncontested seats. They have opted to approve a new election for president and vice president, discarding all previously casted votes.

The senate voted to approve a new election for president and vice president, with the stipulation that all previously casted votes be discarded.

Everyone, regardless of whether they voted in the first election, is allowed to vote in the new election which will take place from April 18 at 10 a.m. to April 20 at 10 a.m.

The votes were thrown out after discrepancies were found in the election process. These were brought to the attention of the senate last Monday and during the special meeting on April 13. Roughly 4% of students had difficulty voting through GetInvolved, according to vice president candidate Jared Jess. This, along with voting times of only 36 hours, the election commission was not approved by the senate prior to the election and accusations of a biased election committee were all brought to the attention of the senate during the emergency meeting.

Senators discussed possible solutions to problems in the first election such as extending the voting times, and providing an easily accessible link through social media and email for students who may have trouble with voting.

Voting is now open. Links were emailed to all students’ emails.

04.07.23

The fire alarm in Bluff Hall was activated due to an unknown reason. No smoke, fire or damage was reported and Edwardsville Fire Department cleared the scene.

04.09.23

The fire alarm in Woodland Hall was activated due to cooking. No smoke, fire or damage was reported and Edwardsville Fire Department cleared the scene.

04.12.23

A parking tag was stolen from a vehicle in Parking Lot A.

04.13.23

A subject reportedly exposed himself on a Zoom meeting. Money was stolen from a wallet on the 400 side of Cougar Village.

04.14.23

A traffic accident was reported on East University Drive near South State Route 157.

A debit card was found at the police department.

A backpack was in Founders Hall.

04.16.23

A traffic accident that resulted in property damage was reported in Parking Lot 11.

04.17.23

The fire alarm in Woodland Hall was activated due to cooking. No smoke, fire or damage was reported and Edwardsville Fire Department cleared the scene.

Research shows America’s food systems negatively affects minorities living in poverty

In a three-part series featuring speakers discussing the importance of food and agriculture, Bobby Smith speaks on the impact food can have within Black communities.

Smith is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana, Champaign as well as the author of a book that pays tribute to his work in the Department of African American Studies.

“We have to re-embed the economy into society,” Smith said. “So we have to use the economy as a way to bring power to the people.”

One way of bringing the economy back into society is to simply bring society to the economy. One of the many examples Smith used is grocery stores, saying that they tend to be sterile places that lack personality and community.

However, in lower-income communities, the opposite is true. Grocery stores are rare in some communities with farmers’ markets taking their place — effectively heightening the sense of belonging within a group of people. Smith uses the example of Dollar General to further his point.

Dollar General — a place that sells food, clothes, toys and more — is common within less ‘welloff’ places. Lower-income families do not have enough money to purchase name-brand products, so they must fill their stores with items that have been produced locally. This is where farmers’ markets become prevalent.

“Farmers’ markets are hangouts. There’s a band playing in the corner — you got tamales being cooked over here — it’s a social setting,” Smith said. “Social settings aren’t for everybody. It’s not inclusive for everybody. It seems to protect society from what corporate agriculture is doing.”

Corporate agriculture, as Smith said, protects their products instead of the people that they are selling to. Smith says that while protected, these products are killing people.

“This is a matter of life and death. Don’t eat highly processed foods because your body will shut down and attack itself and be diseased. Deceased,” Smith said.

Corporate agriculture often has such a grip on smaller communities because their food is poorly made and accessible, such as drive-thrus and fast food. However, this food is not healthy. This food is not filling and only forces someone to continue to eat more low-quality food to survive off a minimal amount of nutrients.

“It’s willful ignorance,” Smith said. “People know people are hungry, but it’s ‘their problem.’ A lot of them know what’s going on, but turn a blind eye to it anyway.”

In order to fix this issue, Smith suggested that we begin to work within our communities at these food marketplaces to begin the power shift.

“I think it takes people spreading the message,” Smith said. “These kinds of programs and conversations empower people. What’s important about these kinds of programs is it shows people they are not alone in this. So during this talk, we had people who were doing one thing talking to folks who were doing another thing … living in the same community, even though they never talk to each other. I think that’s important because you build collective power.”

Smith pushes the point that power lies within the people. He adamantly believes that commu- nities have the power to change their state of living.

“I think that it’s going to have to impact those who are in power. Maybe it should be on the local ballot, like on local county boards. That’s where the real work happens, is at the local level,” Smith said.

One of the more individual-centered solutions on the issue of cutting heavily processed foods out of communities is the creation of aquaponic systems. Yashika Mckay was an attendee at the Rehearsing Black Food Futures speech and is the founder of a self-sustaining aquaponics system located in the St. Louis area.

“Aquaponics is where you use fish waste to grow food,” Mckay said. “That way, if you know what your fish are eating, then you know what your food contains.”

Mckay describes this process as the “first way to grow truly clean food,” with all of the aspects of growth within the farmers’ control. This limits the amount of damaging chemicals that make their way into the food, and assists in creating healthier products, and therefore healthier people.

“I’m thinking from the outside. I want to know what other people are going to think. I just want people to understand how the food system works, and once we understand how it works, we can begin to organize to resist it, to work within it, or use it for our benefit,” Smith said. For more information visit Smith’s webpage at University of Illinois’ website. Reporter Dylan Hembrough contributed to this article.