Wednesday
Winthrop University
November 28, 2018
Rock Hill, SC
Serving Winthrop and Rock Hill Since 1923
Sam Ross/ The Johnsonian Bryan Harriss refutes rumors of the on-campus Starbucks being on the verge of closure
Sitting down with Sodexo
council.” We meet once a month. That involves 15-20 students that come have dinner with us and talk about Téa Franco dining services. francot@mytjnow.com We present different industry information. Q:Tell us about what you We shared some food trends with have been doing to get the students’ opinions involved in them at the last meeting, we shared different food trends that are going dining services. on on college campuses and we A: One, we try to promote all talk about anything specific to of our events. We are being more Winthrop dining services. There aggressive with the social media are some questions and answers, a posts, we are using the school’s daily digest to promote occurrences little bit of back and forth on things that they would like improvements and different specials that are happening in the dining halls. We have on or things that they like. Sometimes we put flip charts up at the what we call a “student culinary
Manager of dining services, Bryan Harriss, sat down with The Johnsonian to discuss students’ questions and concerns.
door of Thomson that will say things like ‘what is your favorite food?’ so students can come up and write what their favorite food item, and we pull different examples of foods that were written on the flip chart, and we will organize a menu around that and promote that so they know that they are listening to what you are asking us. We are trying to be more active and engaged with the students around the dining services program. Q: Will to-go boxes make a return to Thomson Cafe? A: At the time, we do not and will not have to-go boxes. The reason for that is that the meal plans are designed for ultimate flexibility. We are open from 7:30AM-9:30PM and we never close. Whereas some
schools have meal plans were they have specific dining hours, we stay open continuously which gives students a lot of opportunities to come in and have their meals. Secondly, all of the retail is to-go, so if you don’t want to get Thomson and you want a to-go meal, you can go to any of the retail options and get a meal to go. The third thing that we’ve done in terms of having a portable meal option is that we have what we call Simply To Go meals out of the Eagle’s Nest store. So in lieu of coming into Thomson and swiping your card, you can swipe your meal plan card in Eagle Nest and get a to go meal there and it’s a variety of salad, sandwiches, chips, fruit cups, puddings and that sort of thing. see Sodexo pg. 3
Voter turnout at Winthrop on the rise
Anna Sharpe/ The Johnsonian
The percentage of winthrop students who have participated in voting has more than doubled since 2014. Caroline Riggs riggsc@mytjnow.com
In 2016, only 39 percent of 1824 year olds voted in the presidential elections around the country. Winthrop kept students engaged and politically charged, according to Judy Longshaw, the News and Media Service Manager at Winthrop. Karen Kedrowski is a political
science professor and the director of the university’s Center for Civic Engagement. She said that students, faculty and staff continue to join in the effort to increase voter turnout on Winthrop’s campus, especially in the 2016 and the recent midterm elections. “Winthrop also has a large team of faculty and staff who are inter-
Opinion Finals survival guide •pg.10
mytjnow.com
ested in civic engagement who helped with the campus wide voter turnout efforts,” Kedrowski said. Winthrop also has encouraged students to vote by participating in the Voter Friendly Campus Initiative and the All In Campus Democracy Challenge, according to Kedrowski. “Through these associations, we were able share ideas with faculty and staff working on student voter turnout across the country. As a result, Winthrop paid students’ postage for their voter registration and absentee ballot forms and absentee ballots and developed a ‘make a plan to vote’ project for ACAD classes,” Kedrowski said. Many candidates have said that the political scene has begun to shift in order to suit college-aged students and many candidates have begun implementing efforts into their campaigns for colleges and universities. Kedrowski said that students should take advantage of this and vote so that they are heard. “If they don’t participate, their needs and values are too easily overlooked. Moreover, voting is a habit, and we want our students to become frequent voters,” Kedrowski said. Winthrop’s political engagement has been continuously admirable, according to Kedrowski, but in recent years these efforts have grown immensely. “However, this effort went to a new effort with the arrival of the John C. West Forum in 2008. This
A&C Spring 2019 Preview •pg.8
provided an additional venue to bring programming to campus, create internships and to provide information about voting,” Kedrowski said. Kedrowski also said that she is proud of Winthrop students and their engagement in civil discourse and political activism. She said that many students are becoming more interested in politics, because of the relatability of the policies these politicians are working on. “Young voters are really interested in environment, health care, gun control and more. I also think young adults’ use of social media makes it easier to mobilize and organize protests, sit ins and even email campaigns to elected officials,” Kedrowski said. Many states have adopted a same-day registration policy and early voting policies, which Kedrowski has said she would like for South Carolina to do as well. She also said that in order to increase voter turnout among young people all over the country students should be given as many opportunities to vote as possible. “States with these policies in place have higher voter turnout... These include making election day a campus holiday or allowing voting as an excused absence from class, providing rides to the polls or having a polling place on campus, providing voter education resources and event postage,” Kedrowski said.
S&T
Green tech on the come up •pg.5
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