HEMPSTEAD, NY VOL. 80 Issue 21
The Hofstra
Chronicle
Tuesday April 28, 2015
KEEPING THE HOFSTRA COMMUNITY INFORMED SINCE 1935
Hofstra community mourns loss of Olivia McClellan By Lauren del Valle and Ehlayna Napolitano NEWS EDITORS
Photo courtesy of McClellan’s Gofundme page Second-year Hofstra student Olivia McClellan passed away on Sunday April 19. The photo was used at the request of the McClellan family.
On Sunday, April 19, sophomore Olivia McClellan passed away in Enterprise Hall. The cause of her death remains undisclosed. However, her memory has elicited an outpouring of condolences and aid to her family in an effort to cope with the tragedy as a community. Friends and those that knew her described her as passionate and reserved. However, as one of her professors said, she had a strong sense of justice and admirable strength. “You didn’t really know her that well but she was part of [the] community... how much somebody matters... creates a wound,” said Dr. Lauren Kozol, an Honors
College faculty mentor and Writing Studies professor. Kozol reflected upon her time as McClellan’s Culture and Expression professor and stated that she was a “highly intelligent” student, with insight and a “fire in her eyes.” The young woman was a deep thinker with a sense of humor that Kozol felt was important to remember. However, she was also a reserved person, who was quiet in class, but always with an insightful comment when called upon. “She was somebody who kept her guard up but she did have close friends,” Kozol said. She remarked that she felt McClellan was a good friend to those close to her. Luke Pelton, a graduate sports science student who was friends
with McClellan, agreed that friendship was a very important thing to her. “She really valued the friendship that people offered her,” Pelton said. “Coming to Long Island was really rough and having that close group of friends meant a lot. You could tell she valued it.” Kozol was a part of several events held in memory of and in support of the community after the McClellan’s death. These events have included bracelet making and an open forum for people who wanted to share emotions and memories. According to Pelton, McClellan loved bracelets and often made bracelets for herself.
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Guarino and Gallagher sweep SGA elections By Michael Ortiz STAFF WRITER
The Guarino-Gallagher ticket won the Student Government Association (SGA) presidential race by a vote of 450-256. Before the votes were counted, voters were given the opportunity to get to know the candidates and their plans for the 2015-2016 academic year. The SGA Election Commission held three debates. Presidential and vice presidential debates took place in Plaza Middle on April 17. A town hall style forum occurred in the main dining area of the Student Center on April 22, the first of two days of voting. Few community members unaffiliated with SGA attended the election events. Nonetheless, the events went on as scheduled and one ticket proved superior to the other, and that ticket happened to win the
election. Current SGA vice president Nicole Olsen, and current SGA comptroller Alyson Guarino went head-to-head in the presidential debates. Debate questions didn’t encourage a rebuttal, and when they did, the opposing candidate usually refrained from doing so. However, the candidates did present new initiatives. When asked what population at Hofstra they felt was underrepresented, and what they would do to fix it, both candidates agreed that commuter students were clearly underrepresented. “Some people travel hours to get here, and I think they don’t have representation on decisions that are made on campus,” said Olsen. The junior political science and economics double major felt that there should be a governing body created for commuter students to fix that issue.
Guarino agreed and added that she felt students with disabilities were also underrepresented on campus. “I think that [students with disabilities] are a small population on campus, but they absolutely need to be represented more.” “I do not think SGA was as effective as we could have been,” said Olsen, who felt that although the individual committees did well this year, SGA as a whole needs to start thinking more about students in general, not just clubs. Rather than make general statements, Guarino offered specific ideas that allowed the audience to understand what she would implement if elected. “I want to put something up on CollegiateLink where students can put an initiative that they want to see or problem that they have.” “I want students to have a central place where they can complain about something, and
then not only do we take on the initiative, we have their contact information and we keep them updated on every single step of the initiative,” said Guarino, junior IT major and information systems and data analytics minor. At the conclusion of the presidential debate, the vice presidential debate commenced with current chair of the appropriations committee, Damien Gallagher facing off against current chair of the programming board, Whitney Shepard. Gallagher, a sophomore political science major and legal studies and business minor prepared with specific ideas and initiatives much like his partner in running, including a three-part system to improve Hofstra’s ranking as an institution. Gallagher felt that a huge detriment to the University is its retention rate. He offered ways to increase spirit, the value of a
degree from Hofstra and a sense of community, which he claimed would keep students at Hofstra. As vice president of SGA, one oversees all the committees, so the candidates were asked what specific initiatives they have for each of the committees, to which Shepard, a sophomore public relations major and global studies minor, answered that she had none. “I’m just going to be honest I haven’t really thought of this question,” she said. “I think that when senate elects their chairs for each committee, they elect them for a reason and I trust them to do their job.” Once again Gallagher offered a concrete answer that allowed the voters to gain insight on where he would take SGA.
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