Daily Helmsman The
Friday, March 18, 2011
Coach: No Cinderella Team Pastner talks about how the glass slipper doesn’t fit in the Tigers’ underdog status
Vol. 78 No. 094
see page 8
Independent Student Newspaper of The University of Memphis
SGA Election 2011
www.dailyhelmsman.com
The Helmsman continues its in-depth coverage of student government at The University of Memphis in part three of this special series
Meet your presidential candidates n n n n
United Students party Current college senator for business and economics Junior accounting major Vice presidential running mate: Rachel Goodwin, sophomore political science major
by Chelsea Boozer
Student Government Association presidential candidate Tyler DeWitt’s campaign focuses on “accountability and ultimately transparency” in the SGA. “I decided to run for president of SGA because upon becoming a senator, I noticed a few fundamental, and honestly somewhat disheartening, practices that were going on in SGA,” he said. “I’m promoting accountability because the saddest part of all this is that our student body doesn’t know this is going on. The student body doesn’t know the lack of integrity, honestly, that’s come through in terms of following the (SGA) constitution and executing faithfully the laws of the Student Government Association.” DeWitt said students should vote for the candidates running under the United Students party because of their accountability-based platform. But he said students should learn about all the candidates. “Truly research these issues and think about which party, which candidates, are truly looking out for your interest and not their own,” he said.
see
Hunter Lang
BY Chelsea Boozer News Reporter
n n n n
Finding Answers Concerning Everyone party Current SGA president Junior piano performance and music business major Vice presidential running mate: Courtney Milton, senior accounting major
Student Government Association President Hunter Lang’s campaign for re-election centers on the implementation of the USA Today Collegiate Readership Program. The program, which provides the delivery of three newspapers to campus for students’ use, will remain on campus this semester without financial obligation to students. However, a payment method must be determined before its continuation beyond this semester’s end. “This program has been in talks for about three or four years, and I am very proud that it has finally happened under my administration,” Lang said. “I have put in a lot of effort to bring this program to campus. It’s kind of like my child that I’ve done so far,” he added.” “I’m very proud of it. And I really hope to see it continue.” Lang noted that under his administration, SGA has worked to keep the minimum full-time status for students at 12 hours, to keep the 2,000 student seats at basketball games in FedExForum, and to keep campus safety “a No. 1 priority.”
DeWitt, page 4
see
by Chelsea Boozer
Tyler DeWitt
Lang, page 5
No silence for Nashville 7 BY Kyle LaCroix News Reporter U of M students James “Justin” Sledge, philosophy graduate student, and Sally Joyner, U of M law student, were among the seven protestors released from jail on bond Tuesday night following their arrests at a Nashville protest at the state capitol. The two students, as well as Paul Garner and Leah Shoaf, students at Memphis College of Art, Jeffrey Lichtenstein and Bennett Foster, Memphians, and Ash-Lee Henderson of Chattanooga, were charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. The incident has drawn polar-
ized reactions from across the state, with some applauding the efforts of the protesters and others condemning their behavior, including elected officials. Thursday, state senator Randy McNally said he was “dismayed” when he learned that some of the arrestees were members of The U of M’s registered student organization Progressive Student Alliance, calling for disciplinary action from The University. “I know that if it was a fraternity that did something like that, they’d be off campus in a heartbeat,” McNally, a U of M alumnus, said on the Senate floor. Sledge is the vice president of The U of M chapter of PSA, which
by Casey Hilder
Progressive Student Alliance speaks out after legislator calls for University to reprimand its students arrested during protest
Dania Helou, sophomore international business major, and Justin Sledge, philosophy graduate student, discuss the Progressive Student Alliance’s position on an incident Tuesday in Nashville that resulted in the arrest of two University of Memphis students, including Sledge.
helped organize the rally with unions and labor groups from across Tennessee. Lichtenstein, though not a U of M student, is also a member of the group. PSA issued a statement
Thursday night addressing its role in the protest and the seven “unjustly” arrested Tennesseans, lauding the “scores of people who stood against empty rhetoric and for real democracy” during the protest.
The group said the actions of protestors during Tuesday’s Senate committee meeting, for which Tennessee state troopers forcibly removed them, were not
see
PSA, page 3