Wednesday, November 28, 2012 // Issue 52, Volume 78 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
THE DAILY COUGAR
T H E
O F F I C I A L
S T U D E N T
N E W S P A P E R
O F T H E
U N I V E R S I T Y
O F
H O U S T O N
SGA to discuss election reform Julie Heffler News editor
A student works at the office for Forensics. | Hannah Laamoumi/The Daily Cougar
SFAC
Forensics resolves miscalculated report Monica Cordova Contributing writer
The Student Fees Advisory Committee report submitted by the UH Forensics Program incorrectly showed the organization had a budget deficit of $10,000. Mike Fain, Director of Forensics, said the miscalculation was the result of a spreadsheet error. He said he was surprised by the The Daily Cougar’s report. “This was the first time ever I had not had a chance to review the documents before they were released,” Fain said. “I was really surprised. I thought the spreadsheet was resolved in time, but we are not in the red anymore.” The initial deficit was resolved using funds obtained from on-campus events. Last year, the program experienced a cut in its budget but was still able to participate in tournaments.
“I believe we have close to a $100,000 travel budget to travel nationally and compete nationally,” said Alex Lacamu, senior captain of Forensics. Funds are used to host college and high school tournaments on campus, Lacamu said. Part of the money from SFAC helps compensate the judges who assist in these tournaments. The program also provides food for UH students who help judge, and they might earn $150 for a weekend event. “We don’t spend SFAC money on two-thirds of our organization, which is pretty much our volunteering and hosting. We use it on half of the hosting, but we also have elementary and middle school tournaments,” Lacamu said. The SFAC form has been updated to reflect a projected $2,277 surplus for Fiscal Year 2013. news@thedailycougar.com
The Student Government Association will discuss election system bylaw reform at 7:30 p.m. today in the Rockwell Pavilion. Other bills proposed would remove Chick-fil-A from the new University Center, disassociate UH from Higher One and would change the font on the UH diplomas. One of the major changes to the election reform would be the removal of online voting, said Stephen Cronin, speaker of the Senate for SGA. “The main difference is a move toward definite polling locations, completely eliminating online voting,” Cronin said. “It would be similar to the way that the athletic department did it and how they did voting with the new stadium.” SGA President Cedric Bandoh said the bill came as a response to the issues SGA faced in the past two election cycles. “There was no way we were going to move forward and be effective without addressing internal issues. The first thing we did was reform the bylaws, overhaul and produce a better structure,” Bandoh said. “The second thing was create the election task force who worked day and night researching election systems at different university campuses to come up with the proposed system on (today’s) agenda.” The move toward online voting
was supposed to increase voter turnout, Bandoh said. However, according to the polling numbers, it has not made a noticeable difference. “Voter turnout is not determined by method of voting,” Bandoh said. “It is tied to marketing. There has been less marketing in the past couple of years; there wasn’t enough money, so we increased funds and focused efforts to encourage students to go out and vote.” A second bill proposed will attempt to remove Chick-fil-A from the selection of restaurants located in the new UC. “The main idea is that the two authors are primarily against its owner’s donations to groups and individuals that aren’t necessarily doing good things towards the LGBT community,” Cronin said. “In (today’s) meeting, there will be a more refined version.” Other issues included in the resolution are that the inclusion of a second on-campus Chick-fil-A would be redundant, the food is not healthy and its closure on Sunday will inconvenience students. “I support the senators initiative,” Bandoh said. “There are a lot of different issues involved in that bill. The debate will give better understanding where senators want to go with the initiative.” Another bill proposed would be the dissociation of UH with Higher SGA continues on page 2
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OPINION
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Crosswalk to improve campus, student safety
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Max Gardner
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Staff writer
Students cross the street on Calhoun Road. | Rebekah Stearns/The Daily Cougar
S I N C E
A new crosswalk was installed on Calhoun Road between Melcher Hall and parking lot 20A to assist students crossing the street during high traffic. Previously, the crosswalk had been a blinking yellow light, indicating cars should use caution while driving and slow down for pedestrians. Now, it has been
upgraded to a stoplight crosswalk. “It’s just a manually activated pedestrian signal that, under normal conditions, would be a steady green until someone pushes the button and needs to cross,” said UH police Lt. Bret Collier. “As long as both pedestrians and people that are driving pay attention to the way the light’s operating, it should make a safer intersection.” CROSS continues on page 2
Professor Tim Howard shares his story about censorship at Lone Star.
COUNTDOWN
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Days until the last day of class.
Bad news if you haven’t attended that class yet.