DAILY HELMSMAN The
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Tourney Takes Tigers to Tulsa By the numbers: a statistical breakdown of UM’s Friday NCAA Tournament matchup
Vol. 78 No. 093
see page 12
Independent Student Newspaper of The University of Memphis
sgA election 2011
www.dailyhelmsman.com
INSIDE THE CAMPAIGN
Ethical? Maybe. Fair? Perhaps. Controversial? Undoubtedly. BY ChelseA BooZer News Reporter With the Student Government Association election less than two weeks away, controversial campaigning techniques from last year’s election have raised ethical concerns about this year’s campaigns. At least eight and as many as 13 grievances were filed last year by the Making Visions Possible party in last year’s election, according to SGA President Hunter Lang, who ran under the Finding Answers Concerning Everyone party. Some of the grievances pertained to posting flyers on vehicles and doors, actions deemed illegal by University policy and SGA election laws. After the election, the MVP party demanded a revote and, according to Lang, both parties had acquired lawyers who were ready to argue the election results in student court. Lang said Cory Higdon, his opponent last year, dropped the charges the night before the scheduled hearing. This year, the controversy has already begun, even before campaign flyers consume campus corkboards and Facebook profile pictures are changed to promote parties. Presidential candidate Tyler DeWitt, who is running under
the United Students party, and Lang, who is seeking another term with the F.A.C.E. party, expressed concern over the phenomenon of candidates setting up laptops as polling stations for students while campaigning near the same table. Students in both parties straddled that ethical line last year. SGA election laws do not allow campaign material at a polling station but only specify the Ned R. McWherter Library and the University Center’s Technology Hub as polling stations. “Essentially, in our election laws it says you can’t bring campaign material in polling places,” DeWitt said. “Would it not be understood that a laptop (set up where students can vote online) is a polling place? We aren’t going to allow campaign materials in the Tech Hub or library, but we will allow you to have the laptop — polling place — where (candidates) are distributing (campaign) information?” Lang said Vice President of Student Affairs Rosie Bingham and former Dean of Students William Porter both suggested candidates carry around laptops to encourage more students to vote. Lang noted that there was a 94 percent increase in votes cast last year (2,610) from the prior
year (1,359). Eleven percent of the student body voted in last year’s election. Lang said he is in favor of setting up laptop polling stations, he said. “(The candidates) were not near students when they were voting (last year),” he said. “We had a girl sitting at the table with a boom box and a cooler (of pop-
sicles). The laptops were turned (toward the voters). No one was ever able to see who they voted for. People could have come to our table and voted for the other party. People can say no. People don’t have to come vote here. A lot of people didn’t vote at our tables.” DeWitt said he, too, sees the advantage afforded by setting up
laptops to boost voter turnout but thinks someone other than the candidates should run the makeshift polling stations. “I think it would be great if a neutral third party had laptops set up as a polling place, but it seems unethical for the parties to do it. If you did this at a real elec-
see
Campaigns, page 6
Just run with it G ng
of R un ni
Frank Minneci, 21-year-old English major at CBU, said the audience comes to shows with ideas. “We may ask, ‘What is a place that you would never put your socks?’ And the audience yells out ideas, and we set a scene,” he said. “We also get audience members to write down suggestions for the show when they purchase their tickets.” Perry said the group started as a fundraising branch of a theatrical company that was producing plays and seminars for underprivileged students. “We outlived them,” he said. “This is our fifth year, so I think we’re pretty good. We’ve hit a nice stride and made it through the difficult times.” Running Gag Improv’s next show will start at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church UCC at 1000 South Cooper. Admission is $5. sy
with the group two years ago. “A good buddy knew I was interested and told me about the group,” he said. “I missed auditions because I was out of town, but I went to the call backs, and they liked me enough to let me in.” He said he hopes to make a career out of improv in a city like Los Angeles or Chicago, both improv “meccas.” “There’s a release on stage of all this energy where you can do anything or go anywhere. I love the idea of going in without anything prepared. It’s awesome — I can’t screw up,” he said. “One of the great things about it (is that) it doesn’t hurt your feelings if the crowd doesn’t laugh. You don’t spend hours on a joke like in stand up — you spend minutes.” Glen Ring has a degree in theatre and has been a member of Running Gag for five years. “It’s a lot of fun. I enjoy doing it,” he said. “You have to be quick on your feet. It’s a lot of fun running with audience suggestions.”
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On the third Friday of every month, a prop-less, set-less and script-less sixmember acting group takes to the stage. Though the actors may seem unprepared, the group has elicited chuckles, laughter and even some guffaws from audiences since May 2006. Running Gag Improv, currently composed of University of Memphis students Russell Brandon and Matt Hunter, Christian Brothers University students Frank Minneci and Amanda Willhite, 45-year-old Glen Ring, and 22-year-old founding member Dustin Perry, entertains with its brand of off-the-cuff humor. “Improv, in a word, is spontaneity,” said Brandon, a 23-year-old experimental psychology Ph.D. candidate at The U of M. “It’s spontaneous ideas that are formed into cohesive scenes. We take ideas from people and then put them together and make them into a story.”
Brandon, who got involved with the group four years ago, said improv shows are “much more freeing than plays.” “You don’t have a script — you have your fellow improv-er on stage to work with you,” he said. Willhite, a 19-year-old CBU psychology major who has been in the group since May 2010, said people tend to think that there is no practice for improv shows. Running Gag practices once a week. “A lot of it has to do with creating worlds, settings and relationships between characters. And we work on that in practices,” she said. “When you’re doing a play or skit, all of those relationships are already developed and written, but in improv, you have to create it all in the drop of a hat.” She said for practices, the group literally goes into its rehearsal space with just the members’ bodies. “No props, no sets, nothing,” she said. Hunter, 22-year-old communications major and theatre minor, got involved
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BY eriCA horton News Reporter
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local comedy troupe does it on the fly