Zombie game ends in draw The Urban Gamer's Guild's Humans vs. Zombies game comes to a close as they deflect negativity. Page D-1
Friday April 11, 2014 • Volume 97, Issue Number 21 • Slippery Rock University's Student Newspaper
the rocket
www.theonlinerocket.com
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
SGA voting accidents affect election results Computer problems resulted in appointing a new senator to SGA
NEWS
Open Forum To Discuss Co-Op Proposed Student Government Association changes would alter the Board of Cooperative Activities. Page A-2
OPINION
Students Should Vote for SGA Student Government Assocation is an important facet of student culture. Students should take the time to vote. Page B-1
SPORTS
Lacrosse Falls To Crimson Hawks Indiana University of Pa. defeated the Slippery Rock women's lacrosse team 15-6 Tuesday night. Page C-3
CAMPUS LIFE
Students Show Their Research SRU's annual Symposium for Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Achievement showcases students' works. Page D-3
Rock Baseball Splits Series The Slippery Rock baseball team split a four-game series against Gannon University last weekend. SRU is currently ranked third in the PSAC-West.
By Kevin Squires Assistant News Editor
Multiple students were unable to run in this year's Student Government Association election due to insufficient signatures collected to be recognized as a candidate. Students wishing to be recognized must obtain a certain number of signatures depending on where they live. For Residence Hall candidates that means 55 signatures, for traditional dorms and R.O.C.K. Apartments candidates 35 signatures and for commuter candidates 65 signatures. One such student, freshman environmental science major Matthew Scott, accidentally only obtained 40 of the 55 signatures (40 is a full sheet of signatures on the form provided by SGA) and was left with the only option to win as a write-in candidate. Scott lost to Sophia Sarver of the COSTUME Party. Had his name appeared on the ballot, Scott may have had a better chance of getting more votes. This was the case for junior history major Dan Gladis who was not only elected as a commuter senator for next year but had more votes than any other student running for the seat with 366 votes. However, Gladis never turned in his signatures and his name should not have appeared on the ballot either. “It was a mistake and we couldn’t fix it,” said SGA President and chair of the elections committee, Buddy Clements. “When I went to remove the names that didn’t [collect enough signatures] his name didn’t get removed by accident. That was an error with Excel and when I sent it to Charlie I didn’t realize until the vote had started.” Gladis, who pulled out of the campaign before it began, was shocked when he found out he had been mistakenly elected to office. “I was naturally surprised and amused because this is the second year in a row that I have been accidentally elected to SGA,” he said. In last year’s election, Gladis split the win for Watson Hall senator with Timothy Ragan, both as write-in
GRAPHICS BY KARLEIGH SANTRY/THE ROCKET
candidates. Gladis informed SGA that he would not be serving as a senator and the seat was offered to Brandon Cannon, the commuter with the next highest number of votes. The elections issues didn’t end with the names on the ballot. They extended to conflicts with the constitution, advertising and getting an increase in voter turnout from the previous year’s election. “There were a lot of issues this year with elections,” Clements said, explaining that one of which was a restrictive timeline from the SGA Constitution. “We’re actually changing within our constitution. The timeline is really detrimental sometimes and last year they actually voted to not follow the timeline,” he explained. “If I wouldn’t have had the elections when we did, I could have been removed from office [based on the current timeline].” “We tried to do a new system of all online advertisements with paperless posts,” Clements said. SGA did tweet to let students know when forms were out for the upcoming election, but waited until the day of the debate to inform students and failed to regularly post once voting had begun. No announcements regarding elections could be found on the group's Facebook, with the exception of a post congratulating Katie Hill after having won the presidential seat. “[Online advertising] worked pretty well, but at the same time the advertisement really comes from the parties running,” he said. Even with these issues, there was only a 0.9 percent decrease in voter turnout from last year’s election which was a record high for voter turnout, according to Clements. “We were pretty close the same numbers last year, maybe about 60 less and I don’t know why that was, maybe it was just less people were interested this year and I think there was a little less campaigning from both sides,” Clements said. SEE DESPITE, PAGE A-4
Page C-1
Faculty respond to bill allowing SRU to leave PASSHE By Jonathan Janasik News Editor
With Pa. Senate Bill 1275 in discussion, Slipper y Rock University faculty share insight on how the bill could affect the university. The bill would allow Pa State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) universities to separate from the state system and become state-related institutions if they are able to prove that they can support themselves. In a March 11 press release, supp or t i ng s e nators R ob e r t Tomlinson and Andy Dinniman proposed the bill in order to give universities the option to become financially and educationally independent. Tomlinson stated the current structure of the state
system is not beneficial and that if nothing is done, some universities could become bankrupt.
SRU Director of Public Relations Rita Abent explained that the discussion about the bill is ongoing. “The devil is always in the details,” Abent said. “So until the university, the [state] system, and the Council of Trustees have had enough time to evaluate the details, we really don’t have any comment on it.” Although SRU administration has yet to decide if they support the
bill, SRU chapter of Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF) president Dr. Patrick Burkhart said that he found the bill to be unfortunate. “Abraham Lincoln quoted the Bible when he said ‘a house divided cannot stand,’ and I find that measure to be divisive,” Burkhart said. “It appears to have intent to separate wealthier institutions from those of more meager financial needs and in that manner can further sap the strength of the state system. The ability to succeed is in conflict with the solidarity that I would prefer PASSHE embrace.” Aside from the unity of the state SEE POTENTIAL, PAGE A-2