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CATALYST
MOTE MARINE
NET NEUTRALITY pg.
pg.
9
3
MARCH 4, 2015 VOLUME XXXVII, ISSUE III
A student newspaper of New College of Florida
WHAT’S Meet the Co-Presidents: Statham and Pellaton win special election INSIDE
5
BY COLT DODD AND JASMINE RESPESS
TREE BEACH
6 SIS LS E TH RRE CA
12 GLAMOUR KILLS TOUR
This year’s New College Student Alliance (NCSA) presidential election was unlike any other. Due to the quick departure of the recently sitting second-year president, Carlos Santos, a speedy special election had to be held. Candidates on the ballot included second-years Kira Rib and Allen Serrell and presidential elects second-years Shelby Statham and Paige Pellaton. The usual campaign is a 10-day process, but this special election was only seven days. Pellaton and Statham sat down with the Catalyst to dicuss the campaign process and their upcoming plans. Since it was a special election, was it just like any other campaign? “We really mobilized very quickly. Shelby was actually the one who asked me to run,’ Pellaton said. “I was definitely interested in running in the past […] We sent out our campaign email and made our emails over the course of three days, our whole campaign was a very dense three days of activity and work.” “I think it was really different,” Statham said. “We chose to run because we would be the right transition team.”
Colt Dodd/Catalyst
Newly elected co-presidents Shelby Statham (left) and Paige Pellaton (right) will be working together until their term ends on June 31st.
As presidents, are you going to take up where Carlos left off or do you have some of your own ideas? “Since we are coming in a little bit late to the semester a lot of it is figuring out where Carlos left off and how we can pick up,” Pellaton said. “Mostly we are trying to narrow down what Carlos was working on and complete those task before the end of the semester.” “A lot of the things Carlos was working on I was working with him,” Statham said. Statham explained that she has been involved in the Peer
Education Program and has been cooperating with the Counseling and Wellness Center (CWC). Pellaton and Statham also said they want to restore the late night library hours that past presidents Cassie Corrado and Carlos Santos worked to put in place. Statham said one of her ideas was for a different cabinet member plan an event every month, “Movie nights, treasure events, everyone brings a
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Library late hours still to be determined BY RYAN PAICE Late night studiers may be treated to another hour or so of library time within the next week or two, depending on whether or not the New College Student Alliance (NCSA) and the dean of the library can come to an agreement. Newly appointed NCSA co-presidents Paige Pellaton and Shelby Statham are to meet with Brian Doherty, dean of the library, to discuss recently shortened library hours. While the library was open until 4 a.m. last semester, it has been closing at 1 a.m. so far this semester, sending many confused late library-goers adrift in the night with only more work to do. “I am bitter and upset. I want to do more homework,” thesis student and Student Court Counselor Casey Dodge said about being forced from the library so early. “The reason the library is closing early – from what I understand from going to cabinet meetings – is that the person who is in charge of the library demands that we have a security guard to keep the library opened later,”
Dodge said. Dodge believes that hiring a security guard would not be helpful, stating that “We have a cop shop right around the corner, which is a far more effective security response than somebody with pepper spray.” “I don’t really see why you would need a security guard, there is a blue light right outside of the library,” agreed first-year Mimi Chenyao. “There are more options than just hiring a security guard.” A frequent late librarygoer, Chenyao was in the library at 12:45 a.m. when a voice over the intercom announced to students that the library will be closing in 15 minutes and that they need to leave the premises. “A lot of people are complaining about it because it is really screwing with their study habits,” Chenyao said in regards to the situation. “We started late hours as a pilot project a few years ago – Michael Long was the student body president – and we did it as a test during finals week,” Doherty said. “After that we met with Michael and figured out a plan where students would generally fund other
Ryan Paice/Catalyst
The library is a convenient study space for late-night sessions.
students to come and staff the library during the late-late hours. But now we are moving in the direction of making this as safe of a place as you can.” After the shooting in Florida State University’s library last fall, Doherty insists upon
the NCSA funding a security guard. “We had a meeting of all of the deans of the libraries and have begun to come up with some best practices,”
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