The PioSphere Weekly Sports Forecast

The Weekly Forecast
PioSphere Reporter Josh Landry

Pioneer Performance: This week’s honor is a bit unusual, as it goes to both the men and women’s basketball teams and their strong second half play on Saturday that led to victories by both teams. After trailing by ten to Rose-Hulman at the half, the men’s team outscored the Engineers 43-24 in the second half, led by Ethan Spurlin’s 19, and finished with a 69-60 win. The women’s team held Rose-Hulman to seven points in the last 15 minutes of the game, improving to a 7-1 record and remaining atop the HCAC standings.

Matchup of the Week: Men and Women’s Track and Field travel to Otterbein University this Saturday to open the season at the Otterbein Invitational. With only two seniors coming into this season (Kelsey Meade and Laura Clark) and eight freshmen, a relatively young group of Pioneers will look for a strong showing in the first of ten events this season.

Player to Watch: The women’s basketball team faces off against Mount St. Joseph at home this Wednesday night at 7:30pm. Freshman Alex Botkin leads the team in both rebounds (8.8 per game) and blocked shots and holds a key part to the Pioneers’ attempt to remain atop the HCAC standings for the rest of the season.

The PioSphere’s Weekly Forecast

The Weekly Forecast
by PioSphere Staff Reporter Josh Landry

Pioneer Performer:  This week’s top performer also happens to be last week’s player to watch, Meghan Bowers, who racked up a whopping 26 kills in the women’s volleyball match against Bluffton on Saturday.  The Pioneers defeated the Beavers 3-1, remaining the only team unbeaten in HCAC play, and now stand atop the conference rankings.

Matchup of the Week:  After a disappointing four game road trip (with three away, and one on a neutral field) for women’s field hockey, returning home could provide the spark for a much needed victory.  Come out and show your support on Senior Day, which is 2pm Saturday on John Hall Field, when the Pioneers take on the Sewanee Tigers.

Player to Watch:  Junior Christian King has been red-hot as of late, with 4 goals in the past three matches (including a hat-trick against Manchester University).  Look for this hot-streak to continue as men’s soccer faces the Earlham Quakers, at home, Wednesday at 4pm.

The PioSphere: What to Watch for in the Week Ahead

PioSphere Reporter Josh Landry

Matchup of the Week: Men’s soccer looks to continue its six-game winning streak and remain undefeated in conference play facing Franklin College at home Wednesday.  Coming off a decisive 4-1 win against Manchester University on Saturday, led by a hat-trick from Junior Christian King, the Pioneers will seek similar results against the Grizzlies at 7pm Wednesday.

Player to Watch: Junior Meghan Bowers of Transylvania Women’s Volleyball.  The 6’0” Bowers is coming off a 12-kill outing on Saturday against Anderson University and the Pioneers will need another strong performance at Defiance on Saturday if they hope to remain unbeaten in HCAC play.

SGA addresses problems with upperclassmen Senate elections

Jake Hawkins

Managing Editor

Next year’s Student Government Association is all set with 26 upperclassmen senators, but not without a few hiccups in the process.

Candidate for graduation and SGA President Josh Edge for the 2011-12 academic year, who oversaw the elections, originally contacted 27 students congratulating them on being nominated to the organization.

“It wasn’t a problem at first,” said rising senior and newly elected SGA President Charli Fant, “because one person immediately dropped senate.”

However, a problem soon became apparent when Fant and other newly-elected SGA officers realized that one of the remaining 26 senators who were sworn in received fewer votes than rising junior Sydney Katz, who wasn’t sworn in.

“We don’t have protocol for this,” said Fant, who then explained that the student without enough votes willfully stepped down to allow Katz to be sworn in.

“I think we handled it appropriately,” said Fant.

The mistake was described as an oversight and Fant said that next year’s election will require more careful eyes to check names before anyone is sent.

In an email to The Rambler, Edge failed to acknowledge any discrepancy in the election he oversaw.

This was the first year that students were allowed to vote on their personal computers through a Surveymonkey link sent campus wide.

SGA didn’t release the name of the student incorrectly sworn in.

 

Brock embodies editor-in-chief lifestyle

Gary Deaton

Guest Columnist

THIS IS THE LAST ISSUE OF THE RAMBLER!  OK, so it’s not really the last issue

ever, but it is the end of an era, an important and crucial period in the long history of our campus newspaper; this is the final edition that will say “Erin Brock, Editor-in-Chief” (EIC).  It will not, however, be the last we will hear of Erin, nor the last time this moniker will apply to the way she lives her life.  Quality EICs are special people with superb talents and Erin Brock is that and so much more.

Candidate for graduation Erin Brock will attend Miami University, located in Oxford, Ohio, in the fall to begin work on her M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition.

First, EICs should be great writers.  Erin has proven in many contexts and for many purposes that she deserves this descriptor.  Perhaps most immediately relevant, the Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association (KIPA) awarded her with the Top Sports Column Award for 2012.  The Southern States Communication Association (SSCA) also recognized Erin’s skills by selecting her WRC Senior Seminar paper, an in-depth analysis of the internal, external, and architectural rhetoric of a Muslim sect in West Chester, Ohio, for inclusion in their Undergraduate Honors Conference in San Antonio this spring.  Additionally, Business Lexington magazine was so impressed by Erin during her internship that they continue to hire her as a freelance writer.  In fact, the cover article in the May 25 edition will be Erin’s work.

Erin, like all good EICs, is not only focused on maximizing the present moment, but also always looking to the future.  In keeping with her optimistic outlook and opulent personality, Erin’s future forecast is sunny and bright!  In fall of 2012, Erin will begin her work toward an M.A. in Composition and Rhetoric at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (after rejecting offers from Purdue, Carnegie-Mellon, and others).  Better yet, Miami is paying her to be there!  Erin will begin her teaching career during this graduate experience, instructing first-year composition students.  Eventually, Erin plans to earn a Ph.D. and become a faculty member at a liberal arts college (Public Service Announcement:  Hey, Transylvania!  Keep this in mind!).

EICs also need to be broadly educated and multiply interested.  While we hope all Transylvania students could be so described, these are particularly apt descriptors for Erin.  In May, Erin will receive degrees in both English and WRC.  She has worked as a Writing Center consultant (a role she will continue at Miami as part of the Howe Center for Writing Excellence).  She has done research with faculty members.  She has team-taught with Transy teachers as well.  Erin was also a four year member of the golf team, despite having not played the last two years of her time in high school. “I didn’t like my coach in high school, and I didn’t enjoy the company of the girls on the team, so it didn’t seem like a good investment of my time, but college golf has been the complete opposite; I love my teammates and Coach Turner has been great,” Erin said.

Apparently, Erin has also been good for both her teammates and her opponents as she was chosen to the Heartland College Athletic Conference All-Conference Sportsmanship Team this year.  Even in journalism, Erin has shown her diverse interests and talents, having been a copy editor, a multi award-winning design editor, an opinion editor in high school, and an editor-in-chief for both her high school paper, Voice, and The Rambler.

Finally, “Editor-in Chief” means you have to be the ideal combination of authority figure, empathic friend, public relations expert, master motivator, organizational guru, and communication expert.  The Rambler has certainly benefitted from the fact that Erin Brock is all of the above (as exemplified by the 30 KIPA awards they received this year, including 11 first-place awards for Erin and her colleagues).  More importantly, Transylvania has been tremendously bettered by the fact that Erin chose to make her first move from Lakota West High School in our direction.  Those of us who have been in Erin’s presence are humbler for it, those of us who shared a classroom with her are better educated because of it, and those of us who have really gotten to know her are much happier thanks to Erin.

So, no, this is not the end of The Rambler.  But no matter how much confidence we have in next year’s staff, we friends and fans of Erin Brock can be forgiven for despairing a little bit (for a time anyway).  But we can all take heart by remembering that, for Erin, “Editor-in-Chief” is not so much a title as a way of life.

SGA treasurer election: Round Three

Holly Brown

A&E Editor

Although students have voted twice already to decide next year’s Student Government Association treasurer, the winner is still unknown.

In last week’s runoff election, there was a perfect tie between sophomores Jordan Perkins and Ashley Carter for this position.

This comes after junior Wes Becker was eliminated from the running in the first round of voting, leaving neither Carter nor Perkins with a majority.

Because of the rarity of such an event, senior Josh Edge, the current SGA president, had to dig through the SGA bylaws to figure out how to handle the situation.

“It certainly is not something that happens typically,” said Edge.

According to the bylaws, the election must be opened up to new candidates, but only those who are already members of SGA. All eligible students must turn their petition to run into Edge by this Friday.

After new candidates have had a chance to enter the race, a third election will be held. This voting, according to Edge, will occur at some point during finals week. Students eligible to vote can keep an eye on their inboxes, where a survey link will be sent.

New SGA executives take office

Holly Brown

A&E Editor

Decision 2012

Student Government Association elections have come and gone, leaving Transylvania University with a new group of SGA officers for the coming academic year.

According to senior Josh Edge, the current SGA president, 422 students voted in the election, which is a little higher than the average participation rate.

With all votes tallied, junior Charli Fant will succeed Edge as SGA president alongside vice president Kayarash Karimian, a sophomore. Sophomore April Ballard will take the role of secretary.

For the treasurer position, however, there will be a runoff election since no candidate received 50 percent of the vote in the first round. The two candidates participating in this runoff are sophomores Ashley Carter and Jordan Perkins.

The runoff election for SGA treasurer will run concurrently with the election of senators, which takes place today and Friday. Once again, students will receive an email with a link to SurveyMonkey, where they will be able to cast their votes.

Fant attributes her win to several factors including a solid platform, her choice to have in-depth conversations with other students about her campaign rather than just telling them to vote for her, and her wide variety of experiences, which may have allowed a large range of students to find her relatable.

Fant already has an idea of the major goals that she hopes to accomplish next year. One of these is a revision of the alcohol policy, particularly in regard to the rules on the quantity that students are allowed to keep in their rooms and the discretion policy about bringing alcohol into residence halls.

“I want to make (the alcohol policy) more in line with what actually happens here on campus,” said Fant. “I’d be interested in looking at open container policy, but I don’t feel really strongly one way or the other about that. So, specifically, I would like to deal with the quantity rule and the discretion issue.”

Apart from revising student policy, Fant also hopes to make some more internal changes for SGA. Her first aim is to increase SGA office hours in the early part of the year, before first-year elections.

“My plan is to have someone study in there for about two hours a night,” said Fant. “The door’s going to be open; students will be able to come in, ask questions if they need to. … I want to make sure that students are coming in to see representatives, that we’re not just talking about ourselves and our interests but that we have a lot of student interest.”

This increase in office hours would specifically be directed at allowing the new treasurer, Perkins, to be available several hours a week to discuss funding issues with students who are interested in seeking SGA funding for their organizations.

“We’re hoping to have the treasurer there several times during the first few months so that students can get really acquainted with how to write funding requests, how to ask for operating funds, and things like that,” said Fant.

Along with giving organizations more opportunities for obtaining advice concerning funding requests, Fant would like to double the operating funds awarded to organizations by SGA, offering approved organizations $200 as opposed to the current $100 amount.

“I think organizations can really do more with that money and really take hold. A lot of organizations start off and in their first couple of years they don’t last very long because they don’t have enough money to thrive,” said Fant. “After you ask for operating funds, you can still come and ask for funding requests.”

Fant also hopes to makes some constitutional changes.

“I think we need two (public relations) chairs, one for each of the two major committees,” said Fant. “It’s an internal change, but I really think it’ll make a big difference with how SGA communicates with the student body.”

Outside of the president’s seat, Ballard expressed her wish that the student body become more involved in SGA’s work.

“I really want to make SGA more accessible to all students. I think in the past SGA has been seen as a group that isn’t open for suggestions and isn’t for the entire student body, but I want others to know that we want feedback and people to come to our meetings,” said Ballard. “Our whole purpose is to represent the student body, and we can’t do that without them.”

All officers-elect will officially begin their tenures April 11.

TU students celebrate No. 8

Counterclockwise, from left to right, seniors Meggie Wainscott, Julia Jarvis and Molly Pittman ventured up S. Limestone Street after the University of Kentucky’s men’s basketball NCAA championship victory.

Rambler endorses Fant for SGA president

As the editorial board of Transylvania’s student newspaper, we are charged with providing the campus with both factual information and well-thought-out opinions on issues affecting our community. This is the role of every good newspaper. With this in mind, we welcomed all three candidates for Student Government Association president into our office to discuss their platforms and their vision for Transy’s campus. After meeting with all three candidates and discussing it within our editorial board, we are proud to endorse junior Charli Fant.

While each candidate had an impressive résumé, good relationships with administration and unique perspectives on the SGA president’s role, Fant is the candidate furthest from the status quo and will bring about effective change to improve the foundation of SGA and, by extension, the campus itself.

Fant offers several strengths with her candidacy, including a plan for transparency and accountability in the functions of SGA, ideas to reform the organization from the ground up and sincere plans to ensure an inclusive atmosphere for all students. These will ensure not only a great tenure for Fant but the establishment of an efficient and representative organization for years to come.

At its core, SGA is a student organization built to serve the student body in a multitude of ways. Its very purpose necessitates open and transparent actions at all levels. Fant proposed that under her leadership, specific details of funding requests and SGA’s budget, including how much it spends on itself, would be published, a radically new policy that neither of her opponents has shown concern with.

Andrew Goff’s Rebuttal

Let me start by saying that running for SGA President from another continent is not the easiest thing to do, but I want to thank The Rambler for making themselves both convenient and accessible from abroad. In regards to my interview, I would like to clarify my stance on the opening of the weekly SGA Executive Committee (EC) meetings. While I do agree that transparency is something that this organization should always strive for, I do not believe that opening up EC meetings to the student body is the best option for attaining the level of openness and accountability that we all want for our SGA. If I were President, I would ensure that a detailed transcript and minutes were published after our EC meetings to keep the student body up-to-date with the happenings of SGA. I want to reiterate that I still stand by this position. For efficiency’s sake, I believe that keeping the amount of people present at EC meetings at the lowest number is best to ensure that the goals of the evening are accomplished. I simply wanted to clarify this position so as to not be viewed in a negative light, as I do indeed have the best intentions for the student body in mind.