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U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H F LO R I DA

Student body election results not yet official

By Abby Rinaldi C O - N E W S

LI F E STYLE

Celebrate Spring with April EDM festival.

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Montage

S PORTS Softball makes the spectacular routine.

BACK

E D I T O R

Chris Griffin and Alec Waid celebrated an unofficial presidential and vice presidential victory over the tickets of Michael Malanga and Taylor Sanchez, and Nicole Hudson and Amanda Hill on Friday.

The general election resulted in a win for the pair, but their announcement as the official winners will be delayed because of an outstanding grievance lodged by Sen. Aladdin Hiba against Griffin. “(Winning this election) means that our student body believes in me, believes in my vision,” Griffin said. “It’s something that, obviously, I really wanted. I feel like I can do a really great job and to know that our student body also believes in me, it’s a really great feeling.”

Shortly after announcing the unofficial winners of the Student Government (SG) student body general elections, SG Supervisor of Elections Carson Sadro sent out a list of those made official.

Left off the list were the president- and vice president-elect, Griffin and Waid, as well as senators from the College of Business and College of Public Health.

“Please note that some col-

Chris Griffin and Alec Waid celebrate their unofficial victory in the student body presidential and vice presidential election on Friday afternoon. ORACLE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU lege elections and the President preparing for the transition with going to allow the proceedings to and Vice President election have current student body president go through and respect the sysongoing grievances and … can- Andy Rodriguez and vice president tems put in place, as he is connot be certified at this time,” the Malanga. fident he and Griffin ran a clean document from the Election Rules Griffin and Waid were impli- campaign. He knows he will take Commission (ERC) said. cated in a multi-grievance filing the proceedings very seriously.

The College of Public Health will regarding alleged violations of sen“I mean, obviously there’s a have a runoff election, so its seats ate statutes during their campaign. little bit of nerves there, but I think, have not been made official.

Neither elect expressed much having looked up the grievances, I After becoming elects, Griffin concern over the grievance affect- don’t think there’s anything for us and Waid can start training and ing their ticket. Waid said they are n See ELECTION on PAGE 2

Online test monitoring system challenges cheating

By Miki Shine C O - N E W S

E D I T O R

Seventy-five percent of college students admitted to cheating on a higher education test according to the Boston Globe. This number is something the university is looking to change with a special focus on cheating during online tests.

After a year-long trial period, during which the university tested a number of proctoring options for online exams, the university system has adopted the Proctorio system for all proctored online exams this semester. While it’s not required to be used at this time, the research was in response to ques-

tions from employers concerning the validity of online degrees.

Lindsey Mercer, associate director of the media innovation team helped to lead the research, said that Proctorio was the best of the tested programs.

The program doesn’t have a person watching the student during the actual exam, which also means the student doesn’t have to schedule when they’ll be taking the exam. The program automatically links with Canvas, and the price of using Proctorio is cheaper since it doesn’t require paying a person to watch each test.

However, it does require both the student and the professor to be using Google Chrome as Proctorio

is a browser extension. The use of Proctorio on campus is funded, for the first two years, by the tech fee that students pay every semester.

“The contract that we did … it ended up about $3 per student per exam,” Mercer said. “It’s definitely on the lower end because of the advantage that you’re not involving people and human proctors cost a lot.”

The system Proctorio offers up to three different proctoring methods through ID verification, on-screen monitoring and student monitoring. When a professor sets up a test, they get to choose which of these forms of proctoring will be used for that specific test.

Before the student starts the

test, Canvas tells the student which of the three the professor is using and students are required to be told within the course syllabus that online tests may be proctored.

“It all really depends on what the professor wants,” Mercer said.

“The most common way this is being used right now is to verify the student’s identity because just that has been one of the bigger problems … and even some instructors will allow for open book or use of resources and things like that but they still want to verify that the student enrolled in the course is the one taking the test.”

The ID verification takes a picture of the student holding up their

n See PROCTORIO on PAGE 2

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PROCTORIO

ing so the film would be flagged if the student’s microphone picks up Continued from PAGE 1 someone else talking in the room.

If a recording is flagged, it is the student ID before they start the professor’s responsibility to review exam. It won’t film the student the portion it marked. As such, during the exam or lock down there’s no guarantee that it will the computer unless the professor be reviewed. While all the recordings are stored and made available chooses that option. to the professor, On-screen monitoring would “The most common Mercer believes only those keep an eye on way this is being that flagged will ever the computer.

Before starting used right now is get viewed.

He predicts the test, Proctorio just to verify the either the state asks users to federal govclose everything student’s identity or ernment may on their computto coner -- not just interbecause that has respond cerns brought net tabs but also word docs and been one of the up by employers about the validity other programs bigger problems.” of online degrees -- and keeps the by requiring user from openLindsey Mercer online tests to at ing anything else Associate director of least verify stuon the computer the media innovation team dent identities. during the test.

As such, deterThe student monitoring option is the only one mining a university system now that films the student through- becomes preemptive for if that out their test. This option takes a should happen.

“I say part of the reason we recording of the student and flags for any suspicious behavior such as went forward with Proctorio is that leaving the screen for an extended we don’t know and we wanted to period of time or if it looks as be as proactive as we could be,” though the student is checking Mercer said. “We didn’t want to be notes that aren’t within the camera scrambling in the eleventh hour to be choose a solution.” view.

It also takes an audio record-

ELECTION

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really to be worried about,” Griffin said.

This isn’t the first time grievances have surfaced during an election, but Griffin wouldn’t call it a “common thing.”

Griffin is expecting the grievances to be over and done with within one or two weeks. Waid said the trial requests would be submitted Monday to the ERC. The focus is what will happen after the grievances are settled, if they are settled in the pair’s favor.

The pair will need to set up its cabinet, establish an interview process and start planning out how and when to achieve all of the goals laid out in its campaign platform.

Their campaign focused on parking, academics, community and tradition, going by the acronym P.A.C.T. Some of their initiatives include installing parking spot trackers and creating an online syllabus bank for classes.

Another part of their mission, according to Griffin, is to improve

the environment in SG. “(SG) will be changing a lot, and I think it’s the job of the president and vice president to really set us forward in a positive direction and make sure that we aren’t having all of these difficulties,” he said.

“I mean, yes there are always going to be hiccups in (SG). We’re students and we’re not going to do everything perfectly, but I think that if we set it up right and we create that positive environment … (then) this next year we shouldn’t have a lot of the drama and negativity that has been in (SG) in this past year.”

If the proceedings do not go in Griffin and Waid’s favor, Waid would be disappointed but is trying not to think about it too much, as he’s relieved be the victory and the end of a long campaign.

“I don’t think I’ve worked for something so hard in a very long time,” Waid said.

The president- and vice president-elect are set to take office in June and serve through the spring 2017 semester. Inauguration will be near the end of this semester.

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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

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Spring Weekend: the EDM experience of a lifetime

By Jasmin Faisal L I F E S T Y L E

E D I T O R

Electronic Dance Music (EDM) has been growing in popularity with prominent artists like Skrillex, Kaskade and Deadmau5, as well as a multitude of festivals featuring them.

One festival in particular has been the talk of the town this spring among members of the EDM community: Spring Weekend.

Approaching its 10th anniversary, the Spring Weekend Festival will be held in Panama City Beach on April 15 to 16.

Described on its website as “essential to the college experience,” Spring Weekend aims to make each event bigger and better than in previous years, and this year is no exception.

“What (makes) this festival different from any other (is that) that we don’t really define ourselves as just a festival,” Jason Adamchak, a USF senior and current vice president of the EDM club at USF, said.

“It’s more of an experience because this music and festival really caters to a demographic of only college students, whereas a festival like Sunset Music festival caters to more electronic dance music scene.”

Spring Weekend has also been granted exclusive access to host its event at the Panama City Beach, due to some mishaps during last year’s spring break. In other words, no other event will allow drinking and partying on the beach.

“Usually, a lot of college kids go to Panama Beach City,

Florida as the spring break destination,” Adamchak said.

“But due to a lot of complications during last year’s spring break … they’ve actually banned alcohol and partying on the beach. It’s going to be the only event that’s actually happening on Panama City Beach, Florida, in this time period.”

Food carts will be present throughout the event, serving the audience tasty tidbits while they dance to the music and party. Merchandise carts carrying everything from sunglasses to T-shirts will also be scattered throughout the festival grounds.

On the Spring Weekend Snapchat, the lineup for the event has already been announced and will include performances by 4B, Claptone, Tommy Trash, Seven Lions and a mystery

artist, whose identity has not been disclosed.

Adamchak is also interested in having one of the clubs members DJ during the event.

“As of right now, I’m actually the vice president for the EDM club, here, that we created last semester,” Adamchak said “and then my roommate, who actually is a resident DJ at the Amphitheater Event Facility in Ybor City, he’s been getting a lot of exposure.

“He’s kind of like the face of, not only USF but also one of the huge Tampa crowds, as well. And we’re trying to get him a lot of exposure to the people who are throwing the festival, to hopefully get him a spot to play at the festival.”

Tickets for the Spring Weekend are available for purchase on their website

springweekend.com and start at $139.49 for the general package.

There is an option to upgrade to VIP or platinum, which includes Spring Weekend merchandise, express check-in and entry, access to the VIP viewing deck and exclusive tickets to the after party.

The festival takes place all day, both days, so take a weekend trip this April and check out to the Spring Weekend.

EDM festival not only include interesting music, but light shows as well. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE

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NORM

Continued from PAGE 8

Monica Santos over the left-field wall one pitch after driving a foul ball nearly the same distance.

“Knowing that Momo (Santos) is a pretty good contact hitter and she gets the barrel to the ball really well, that was a great situation for her to come in,” Eriksen said. “I would’ve taken a single

BULLPEN

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Hawks in scoring five runs and taking control of the lead for good.

“We have to have guys when they get their opportunity to go on the mound, every guy that goes out there has to be able to throw strikes,” Kingston said.

Aside from two innings Sunday, USF held St. Joseph’s offense in check for the majority of the series, outscoring the Hawks 20-6 in the first two games.

USF junior pitcher Phoenix Sanders limited St. Joseph’s to two hits over four innings while striking out six Friday night, but he was pulled from the game early due to a blood blister on his pitching hand.

“At that point, he wanted to

or a double, that would’ve been it, but the home run’s a bonus.”

The win over the Chippewas capped a four-win weekend that included wins over Purdue (127), College of Charleston (10-8) and Illinois (12-7) as well as the loss to Texas State.

USF hits the field again at 6:30 p.m. Monday when they take on Detroit in the USF Softball Stadium. continue,” Kingston said Friday.

“He said, ‘Coach, I can throw offspeed pitches.’ But we’re in the business of making good decisions for our players, and at that point, it’s not worth risking it. Sometimes you can overcompensate and then something else goes wrong.”

Even with the series win, Kingston said he isn’t pleased with his team at this point in the season.

“This isn’t anywhere close to where we want this team to be, but it is what it is,” Kingston said. “I don’t fault our attitude or our effort today, I thought that was absolutely fine. As I told the team, we need more guys than what we have right now stepping up and showing that they can play well at this level.”

The Bulls will host No. 14 Florida State (8-3) Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the USF Baseball Stadium.

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Opinion

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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

the Oracle the University of South Florida’s student newspaper since 1966

Editor in Chief Grace Hoyte oracleeditor@gmail.com Managing Editor Adam Mathieu oraclemeditor@gmail.com

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U.S. should reconsider mending relations with Cuba Sarah Pineda COLU M N I ST

President Barack Obama’s upcoming trip to Cuba is quickly News Editors approaching. This month, Obama Miki Shine will be the first U.S. president to set Abby Rinaldi foot on Cuban soil since President oraclenewsteam@gmail.com Calvin Coolidge 88 years ago.

Obama made the announceSports Editor ment Feb. 18 on his Twitter account.

Jacob Hoag “Next month, I’ll travel to Cuba oraclesportseditor@gmail. to advance our progress and efforts com that can improve the lives of the Cuban people.”

Opinion Editor Though his intent may be posiBreanne Williams tive, taking such a large step toward oracleopinion@gmail.com peaceful relations with a country led by a Communist dictatorship Lifestyle Editor probably isn’t the direction the U.S. Jasmin Faisal should take. oraclelifestyleeditor@gmail.

Among other reason not to lift com the embargo is the simple fact that Cuba has not met the requirements Copy Editors originally specified by President Zach Lowie John F. Kennedy to lift it, according Isabelle Cavazos to cuba-embargo.procon.org.

Relations between the U.S. and Graphic Artists Cuba have been unfortunate, howLuke Blankenship ever it may be in the U.S.’ best Destiny Moore interest to consider continuing its embargo when Cuba’s government Advertising Sales functions as inhumanely as it does.

Lauren Alford The first step to recovering Alyssa Alexander Cuban-American relations should Adriana Covate be asking Cuba to meet the U.S. in Destiny Moore the middle. While it is certainly not Dylan Ritchey the U.S.’ role to force its ideals on another country, it is our right to expect our trade partners to treat The Oracle is published Monday and Thursday during the fall, spring and summer semesters. their citizens humanely before we offer them the potential to profit The Oracle allocates one free issue to each student.

Additional copies are $.50 each and available at the from us.

Oracle office (SVC 0002).

The people of Cuba have been oppressed since Fidel Castro took

BY PHONE Main . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

974-6242 his position as president in 1959.

Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

974-5190 Since his reign, the U.S. has impleNews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

974-1888 mented numerous restrictions Sports ................

974-2842 regarding trade and travel.

Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . .

974-2620 Today, Cuba’s people hold almost Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

974-6242 no power to represent or defend Website: usforacle.com themselves against the government Facebook: facebook.com/usforacle when it comes to basic civil liberTwitter: @USFOracle ties.

CORRECTIONS Cuba’s government implements The Oracle will correct or clarify factual errors. strict regulations on the lives of Contact Editor in Chief Grace Hoyte at 974-5190.

Cuban residents. They play little role in their government’s actions, and most are forced to live under poor conditions since necessities are divided equally among the people of Cuba.

Since 1959, the Communist Party of Cuba has maintained control of government offices. There was no change in government leadership until Raul Castro took his brother’s place in 2008 after an undisclosed illness ended Fidel’s ability to rule.

Political organization outside of the party is deemed illegal, and dissent is treated as a crime. The very nature of the current Cuban government’s is contrary to the beliefs of most Americans.

Last year, Obama was seen shaking hands with Raul. It was a simple gesture that symbolized an enormous step with Cuban-American relations. After this moment, Obama began to discuss widening travel opportunities between the countries, along with lifting trade restrictions that were implemented for a reason.

Adjustments to the embargo on Cuban-American trade have been made within the last 14 months, and diplomatic relations have been restored after about 50 years without any diplomatic communication.

Cuba’s lack of democracy coincides with its government’s lack of regard for human rights. According to FreedomHouse.org, on a scale of one to seven — one being the best and seven being the worst — Cuba falls at a six for civil liberties and a seven for political rights.

If Cuba agreed to make political changes in order to compromise with the U.S. for the purpose of expanding trade and travel between the two countries, there would be a basis for reconnecting diplomatic ties.

But the fact is that Cuba is still communist and the U.S. shouldn’t rid itself so quickly of the regulations it has imposed for the last 50 years.

Sarah Pineda is a freshman majoring in mass communications.

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What you said Student Government (SG) recently held their 2016-2017 general election, which was meant to elect senators for every college at the USF Tampa campus and the new student body presidentand vice president-elect. Opinion Editor Breanne Williams asked students if they voted and if they think SG is impactful.

“I didn’t vote. They don’t have as much power as you’d assume they do. There are a lot of things students want that we don’t have.”

- Omar Sammour, a sophomore majoring in biomedical sciences “Yes I did vote, but I’m not really sure of their impact on campus. You hear a lot during voting season but you never hear of any of the major changes they’ve made throughout the year.”

- Matthew Mullins, a junior majoring in chemical engineering “I did not vote. I wanted to, though. I think there should be more opportunities on campus to help students vote. I think (SG) does have an impact on campus, though.”

- Priscilla Francois, a freshman majoring in biomedical sciences

“I didn’t vote because I don’t see the impact they have on campus.”

- Jorge Rodriguez, a senior majoring in management information systems

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Sports

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

The Rundown

Softball

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Baseball

Bullpen lets series sweep slip away

USF women’s basketball advances

ORACLE FILE PHOTO/CHUCK MULLER

There was little Temple could to do to impede the USF women’s basketball team from reaching its second consecutive AAC Tournament final.

The Bulls handled the Owls in a 64-46 win in Uncasville, Connecticut. Senior guards Courtney Williams and Shalethia Stringfield combined for 42 points on 16-of-33 shooting.

Stringfield also grabbed 13 rebounds, second only to senior forward Alisia Jenkins with 15.

USF will take on the three-time defending national champion UConn Huskies on Monday at 7 p.m. The Bulls lost 84-70 to the Huskies in last year’s conference finals.

Quote of the day “I think that’s what the best players in the world do, they find ways to win when they’re not feeling well or not at their best.” USF men’s tennis coach Matt Hill said of senior Roberto Cid, who’s indidual win helped the No. 17 Bulls narrowly beat No. 19 Michigan 4-3 Sunday.

Cid is now 11-1 against ranked opponents MORE COVERAGE ONLINE

USF women’s basketball moves on to face UConn in AAC championship Read it at USFOracle.com

Junior Juli Weber’s home-run-robbing catch in the third inning of USF’s 8-2 loss to Texas State made ESPN’s Top 10 Plays segment Friday night — USF athletics’ third time in three years. ORACLE FILE PHOTO/JACOB HOAG

Becoming the norm Freak plays are nothing new to USF softball

By Jacob Hoag S P O R T S

E D I T O R

As soon as the neon green ball left the barrel of sophomore Taylor Webb’s bat, USF sophomore outfielder Juli Weber had already locked in her sights on the would-be home run.

That split-second reaction gave Weber just enough time to stick her glove over the wall at left-center field and rob Texas State (14-5) of a run, keeping the deficit at one. The Bulls lost the game 8-2, but millions watched the catch later on Friday night on ESPN’s SportsCenter Top 10 Plays segment as the secondbest play of the day.

“It was more about the timing, because I was already back there,” Weber said of the grab.

“You just have to kind of go slow and use the fence. I just tried to jump as high as I could and it went in my glove.”

This wasn’t her last Top-10caliber play of the night, either.

With two outs in the third inning, Weber made a diving catch in center field to prevent a would-be extra-base hit to end the inning.

This was just a snapshot of a weekend-long highlight reel for USF softball (11-9), which earned four wins in five games both at home and in Clearwater.

The Bulls have had a knack for finding themselves in the right place at the right time as of late.

Some may deem it a rare burst of athleticism, but for USF it has become automatic both in practice and on the field.

With two outs in the second inning of USF’s 3-2 win over with Central Michigan (4-8) on Sunday, freshman Sam Worrell left her post at third base to make a stretched-out, leaping grab on an infield pop-up to strand a runner at second base

and awaken a crowd of 453 at the USF Softball Stadium.

An inning later with the game scoreless, sophomore Cassidy Boyle snatched a line drive out of the air from Central Michigan sophomore Lacy Tolfree that could’ve meant extra bases.

However, one of these plays surprised USF coach Ken Eriksen, who said he sees this level of play every day in practice. What was once a rarity has now become the expectation.

“Take a look at our defense,” Eriksen said. “They want the ball hit to them.”

On the offensive side, all five of the game’s runs from both sides came in the fourth inning with Central Michigan taking a 2-0 lead on a two-run home run off USF freshman Cheyenne Eggens, who improved to 5-0.

USF responded with a pinchhit three-run shot from senior

n See NORM on PAGE 5

Senior catcher Levi Borders’ two-run home run in the fifth inning stretched the Bulls’ lead to five before squandering it in a 8-7 loss to St. Joseph’s on Sunday. ORACLE FILE PHOTO/JACKIE BENITEZ

By Vinnie Portell C O R R E S P O N D E N T

Leading St. Joseph’s 6-0 heading into the sixth inning Sunday, USF looked poised to complete its first three-win weekend of the season.

However, the Hawks (4-3) would score eight runs over the next two innings to put the game just out of reach for the Bulls, winning 8-7 at the USF Baseball Stadium.

“We had one bad inning where we gave up a bunch of runs because we walked a lot of guys,” USF coach Mark Kingston said.

“It’s that simple. I think we scored enough. We should have scored a lot more than we did; we had plenty of opportunities.”

USF sophomore pitcher Joe Cavallaro allowed three runs over six innings while striking out a career-high 10 batters, but the bullpen was unable to hold the lead.

Three walks and an error by USF (6-5) in the seventh aided the

n See BULLPEN on PAGE 5