THE“CAMPUS
April 6, 2016 – Volume 110 Issue 23
Still working:
New SGA president plans to build on existing goals
“
Miguel Rios
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Nic Rhodes, economics/finance junior, was elected as the next president of Student Government Association. Rhodes beat Daniel McClain, accounting/finance junior, after a 24-hour voting window that started March 29. Rhodes received 62 percent of the votes, while McClain received about 38 percent. “I really do respect the way he ran his campaign,” Rhodes said of McClain. “He had great ideas, and I think I definitely want to use some of those ideas moving forward.” Rhodes has been a part of SGA for three years, serving as chairman of the appropriations committee, as senator for two years and as vice president. Rhodes will be a good president, said Misael Martinez, finance/ economics junior. “I think he’s a well qualified individual with good leadership experience due to his involvement on campus,” he said. Rhodes’s platform focused on continuing the conversation with Sodexo, following through with removing the plus/minus grade scale
Additionally, Rhodes said he would like to work with officials to create an after-school program for surrounding junior high and high schools. He said he would like to see the program offer opportunities I’m excited about the year comfor students interested in politics such as mock trials, a model UN and ing up. I’m really, really pumped a mock senate. “I’m excited about the year coming up,” he said. “I’m really, really to see what we can do and really pumped to see what we can do and really make some real changes to make some real changes to the the school.” school. After graduation, Rhodes said he plans to enter the OCU master’s Nic Rhodes program for business, but he’s keeping his options open. “I thought about law school and obviously a career in politics would SGA president-elect be very exciting,” Rhodes said. “I’m trying to keep my options open system and passing more positive initiatives. at this point.” See below for more on the resolutions. Besides being involved in SGA, Rhodes is a midfielder for the soccer Chance Johnson, current SGA president, said he’s happy for Rhodes. team and a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. Rhodes said “I know he’s worked hard the past two years, and I’ve enjoyed working he likes to play games like ping pong and pool with friends. alongside him,” he said. “I think he’ll succeed in the role.” “Actually my favorite thing to do in the world is play foosball,” Rhodes will take office after the April 14 inauguration. Rhodes said. As president, Rhodes said he wants to accomplish everything in his platform and improve the intramural field. During the candidate forum March 24, he said the field’s quality is unacceptable.
SGA, Sodexo negotiations lead to more food service changes Miguel Rios EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Student Government Association and Sodexo representatives agreed on more changes to campus food services. SGA leaders began negotiating with Sodexo officials after passing a resolution in February that allowed SGA President Chance Johnson to address six requests. The requests were for Sodexo to: - release its contract with the university for review, - allow students to take hot food out of the cafeteria, - develop new meal plan options for students, - refund students for unused meals, - allow outside food vendors on campus for some events, and - clearly display prices on pre-packaged items in Alvin’s café. SGA, Sodexo and university officials attended negotiations, including Nirali Mickow, director of food service, administrators, and the SGA cabinet. The meetings resulted in four of the six requests being met. University and Sodexo officials refused to release their contract to SGA. The request to refund unused meals at the end of the year also was denied, Johnson said. “That one is not going to happen, quite frankly,” he said. “It would cause too many logistical problems, not only for the university, but also for Sodexo. Sodexo officials began displaying prices on pre-packaged
The success of almost all of these programs are predicated on students’ response to them. We’ve worked hard to get to the point where Sodexo is open to them.
Chance Johnson SGA president
items in Alvin’s at the beginning of the month. Pilot program Students will be allowed to take hot food out of the caf during a pilot program in Fall 2016, officials said. Johnson said this was a highly discussed and difficult part of the negotiations, but ended with all parties agreeing to allow students to take hot food out of the caf in a to-go box like they would expect. Mickow said the pilot program will last a certain number of weeks, but students will only be able to take hot food out once a week. The pilot program will test whether taking hot food out of the caf is mutually beneficial for students and Sodexo Matthew Cook, dance sophomore, said this will help. “I’ve always wanted to take hot food out of the caf because I have a very busy schedule and have very short time to eat lunch,” he said. “If I could take more things to go, that would be very helpful.” The program’s success is dependent on the next student government administration assisting Sodexo with its implementation, Johnson said. Nic Rhodes, SGA presidentelect, said he will continue working with Sodexo so more positive changes can occur.
“The program will require student honesty because they don’t want people to eat a lot in the caf and then take more food because they need to base their pricing on how much food is being eaten,” Rhodes said. The crucial part is making sure students respect Sodexo, Johnson said. “It’s just an opportunity,” he said of the pilot program. “If there’s abuse of the program when we test it, then it’ll almost assuredly go away.” Outside food vendors SGA members also focused on getting more flexibility in Sodexo’s exclusivity on campus. Johnson said Sodexo officials clarified instances where they would allow outside food vendors on campus. “In a situation where Sodexo lacks either the personnel or the resources or the skills to meet a specific sort of catering or culinary need, student organizations can go to an outside vendor and approach them about providing those services,” Johnson said. If Sodexo can provide the service, they will exercise their right of first refusal, officials said. “The right of first refusal means, if we want to get food trucks on campus or if you want to get pizza for your organization
Ali Wonderly Student Publications
SGA President Chance Johnson holds students back as they swarm the doughnuts during Midnight Breakfast hosted in the fall by the Student Activities Council. Students will be able to take hot food out of the caf starting next fall.
meeting, technically you have to ask Sodexo first and they have the ability to say ‘no you cannot do that, we will provide the food,’” Rhodes said. “For instance, multicultural events that have specific foods that the caf can’t make, Sodexo said they would not use the right of first refusal.” Sodexo officials said students should come to them first to see if they can provide the food. Johnson said Sodexo has some liability in terms of food provided on campus. “One of the things they’re a little bit leery of is bringing outside vendors on because of safety issues,” he said. “We at least agreed with them that, if we ever sought to bring outside vendors onto campus, that they would meet strict standards for food
safety compliance.” To contact Sodexo about outside food vendors, email Mickow at niraliben.mickow@sodexo. com. Meal plans Sodexo and university officials created another meal plan option available for next academic year. Meal Plan F consists of 10 meals per week, $450 in points and $50 in Stars Cash. It costs $2,137, according to the OCU website, okcu.edu. “I only get to eat lunch twice a week, which is why I think the new meal plan development would be a fantastic idea,” Cook said. “SGA is doing good.” If the new plan is popular, Johnson said SGA members want to negotiate to develop even more
meal plan options. “The success of almost all of these programs are predicated on students’ response to them,” he said. “We’ve worked hard to get to the point where Sodexo is open to them. If we want them to continue, we have to be willing to treat them appropriately.” Mickow said SGA does a good job relaying student concerns to Sodexo officials “They are our way of knowing what students think about us,” she said.
GPA survey results show students dislike current system Prisca Lynch STAFF WRITER
Donovan Lawson Student Publications
Meagan Chew, acting junior, and Loni Carbaugh, psychology junior, study together at the Panhellenic Study Party in March in the Phi Mu house.
M MEDIAOCU.com
More than half of students surveyed agree with Student Government Association’s resolution to change the grading system. SGA officials sent out a survey to students and faculty regarding the GPA plus/minus system. The survey opened March 23 and closed March 30. More than 700 responses were received. “It is evident that students aren’t in agreement with the plus/minus system because they believe that it lowers student GPAs overall,” said Nic Rhodes, newly-elected president of SGA. The results of the survey show that more than 50 percent of students agree that the plus/minus system is unfair to students. A large majority of the respondents said they prefer straight letter grades to the plus/minus system. Three times as many students believe that the plus/minus system lowers students’ GPAs, according to the survey. In a study conducted by Dr. Jonathan Willner, chairman of economics, there were twice as many minuses given than pluses. If
changed to a straight letter system, 60 percent of students would see an improvement in their GPA. One student said she likes that SGA is trying to make this change, but wants to see how it affects her grades compared to those of students at other schools. “I feel like SGA has given us the numbers, which is helpful, but I would like to know how our system compares to other liberal arts colleges and whether or not it affects how graduate schools look at and compare our GPAs,” said Franziska Harms, acting sophomore. Any change to the grading system would require the approval of the Faculty Senate. “Optimistically, if we worked the entirety of next year to push this through, we could see grading scales changed by Fall of 2017,” Rhodes said. For more information, email Rhodes at nhrhodes@my.okcu. edu.
Cheering to the top
Follow us on Twitter @MediaOCU
Go on a date
Like us on Facebook at MediaOCU
Follow updates on cheer and pom nationals in Daytona Read Lifestyles Editor Sage Tokach’s feature on OCU dates
Love don’t hate
See pictures of Love Not Hate Day
Follow us on Instagram @media_ocu