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November 20, 2007
By Kameron Spaulding Anchor Staff Flipping through television stations, it is common these days to see polls on the ‘08 elections. They show viewers how some farmers in Iowa or soccer moms in New Hampshire think. On Nov. 28, Rhode Island College students will get their chance to show the world how they feel. The 2007 RIC Primary is a two day event to begin a year of events with the goal of getting young people involved in politics. The college, with the Secretary of State’s Office and the Rhode Island Board of Elections, will start the events off with a campaign rally on Tues., Nov. 27 from 6 until 9 p.m. in Roberts Auditorium. At the rally, each presidential candidate will have a representative there to discuss issues that were found to be the most important in a survey of RIC students. Each representative can hold a demonstration to garner support for their candidate. They will also be there to answer questions from the public. Commercials and taped, personal messages from the candidates will be shown throughout the rally. So far, representatives from the Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Fred Thompson, Ron Paul, Tom Tancredo, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Barack Obama and Dennis Kucinich campaigns have all confirmed their attendance. The rally and debate is open to the public. On Wed., Nov. 28, the RIC polls will open. This is so students can vote for the candidate of their choice in a campus-wide primary. Actual ballots and voting machines will be set up in the Student Union and Alger Hall.
Many residents of the New Residence Hall have faced problems with their keycards this semester. The New Residence Hall has a different key system than the rest of the residence halls on campus. It
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The RIC polls will open at 7:30 a.m. and close at 5 p.m. According to Kay Israel, RIC associate professor of Communications, “It will also provide a look at current trends locally. Our students come from all around the state and their votes will give us a glimpse of what the voters and the youth are thinking about the 2008 race.” There are other politically centered events being held all day on Nov. 28; including the first Rhode Island screening of Running in High Heels at 12:35 p.m. in Alger 110. The documentary follows the last months of the campaign of E m i l y Csendes, the 29-year-old who ran for state senator in New York’s 29th District. A panel discussion on women in politics will follow the
Residents Locked Out of New Hall By Christopher E. Buonanno Anchor Staff
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has had many quirks in its first semester of use and as a result, many students have been left in their hallway with no way to get into their room. The problem has been erroneously reported as the new key systems being improperly installed because they are running only on batteries and not the electricity running throughout the building. But Dennis Sousa, the head of Campus Card, says that this is not the case. “[The system was] always meant to be what it is.” What it is is a totally different system than what the campus is used to. “RIC is used to using a DSX system,” Sousa said in an interview Monday. “The locks inside the building were never supposed to be hooked up to the electricity. What happened in this situation was a double dose of bad luck.” Sousa went on to say that these new types of locks have had potential problems since they were installed. One possibility is that the batteries operating the locks were faulty before they arrived at RIC. Because they are not operating correctly, the batteries have been dying faster than ex-
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film. After the voting has concluded, the Secretary of State’s office will report on the election results. According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), 1824 year-olds historically vote least when compared to other age groups. The groups sponsoring this event hope to make a change in those facts by engaging college students in the race. “If we can get students involved in thinking about the upcoming election, if we can build a sense of efficacy within students that has an impact on the political process, and if we can build upon their political knowledge, then the entire event will be a success,” said Brian Hull, RIC student and President of the Political Science Club. Event co-sponsors include the Office of the President, Political Science Club, Friends of Adams Library, the RIC Women’s Studies Organization and the Office of News and Publications.
RIC Gives Early Welcome to Class of 2012 By Barry Nickerson Anchor Editor On Saturday, November 10, Rhode Island College hosted an Open House event to give interested high school and transfer students a taste of RIC. The annual event drew hundreds of students and their families to the Murray Center. Tours, information booths and raffles kept the crowds busy; students and faculty filled the Murray Center to give information on their clubs and apartments to the students. RIC President John Nazarian gave a speech to welcome the crowd to RIC. Nazarian said, “This college has a long tradition of being very welcoming and keeping its doors open for its students.” He spoke about how RIC’s smaller class sizes and its opportunities for faculty-mentored undergraduate research set RIC apart. “I can assure you that during my
57 years at Rhode Island College, although there have been many changes, this institution has never lost sight of its central mission: we are here for the students,” said Nazarian. The crowd dismissed, the dozens of booths were then surrounded by the families of the future class of 2012. In order to receive raffle tickets for several prizes at the reception, the students were encouraged to speak to representatives at the various booths. Tours to residence halls and trolleys around the school ran throughout the day. At 3:30 p.m., a reception was held in which prizes were exchanged for the winning raffle tickets. Freshman Grace Ionata assisted in running the Anchor booth at the event. “As a freshman, it was interesting to talk to other incoming freshmen, because just a few months ago I was one of them,” said Ionata. “I enjoyed talking to them and being as helpful as I could.”
“During my 57 years at Rhode Island College, although there have been many changes, this institution has never lost sight of its central mission: we are here for the students.”