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Springfest next
week
By Jonathan Meyer
The time for the annual tournament
known to the UIS campus as Springfest is approaching. While the
games have become a tradition, the event’s organizers strive every
year to make that year better than the one before. This year
Samantha Buhlig and Josey Jones, two freshmen, along with Student
Life Director Cynthia Thompson, have been helping put together
Springfest this time around.
There looks to be good deal of
student involvement this year. Last year, a total of eight teams
competed. This year, over fourteen have signed up. Each team can
have up to ten people with two alternates. While not every team
will have its maximum, this still means
a lot of participation.
In past years, competitions have focused a good deal on athletics.
“We have really been striving to plan events that appeal to
everyone,” said Jones.
Springfest begins on Monday, the 19th of April with the
first event at
6 pm. Festivities end at the awards ceremony Saturday evening. Mainly
social events, such as a movie, and non-athletic competitions,
such as a scavenger hunt, are scheduled for Monday through
Friday. To coincide with classes, the events for these days have
all been set for evening hours.
Most of the athletic competitions will take place Saturday during
the day. These events will include flag football, volley ball,
mud tug-of-war, and many others.
Each team will receive a certain number of points depending on how
it performs in each competition. In addition, doing certain other
things can earn a team points. For example, a team gets points
for being at every event.
Springfest is going with a decade theme this year. Each day of the
week is considered a different decade in the 20th
Century. If the members of a team dress in accordance with the
appropriate decade, they can also earn points.
There are other regulations regarding point accumulation. They
will be explained in greater detail at the first team captain’s
meeting on April 18th. “We want all the teams to be
aware of this information so no one has an advantage by knowing
this earlier,” said Jones.
The hope is that a representative from each team will be able to
make it to this meeting. However, if no one from a team can meet
with Jones, Buhlig, and Thompson, accommodations can be made. In
this situation, a member from the team in question is asked to
schedule a new time to meet or obtain the needed information
through email.
“It's the team captain's responsibility to convey this information
to the rest of his/her team. It would only hurt their team to not
do so,” said Jones.
Younger children will also be able to have some fun during the
festivities. In addition to the inflatable obstacle course for
the competition, a child version has been rented. This toy will
be made available to the little kids while college students
compete.
Though new, freshmen like Jones are looking forward to setting
their Springfest plans into action. Of this, Jones said, “The
week is approaching rapidly and we are […] we are very excited to
carry on this tradition. We have been working really hard to
organize and plan this week, so it goes smoothly and everyone
involved has fun.”
SGA hammers out
constitution proposal
By Tyson Roan -
Editorial Board Director
At two meetings held during
the past week, the University of Illinois—Springfield Student
Government Association hammered out the finer details of their
third Constitutional proposal in as many years.
Changes from last year’s
Constitution include adding a transfer and graduate student
position, shuffling of duties among the elected officers,
developing a programming director for the Student Activities
Committee, and developing a position for a Director of Public
Relations.
The SGA met as a committee
of the whole on Sunday and again on Wednesday for a total of
nearly seven hours amending Constitutional Committee Chairman
Brace Clement’s proposed Constitutional revisions.
President Stuebe commented
on the time that it took the committee to review the
Constitutional revisions. “The process could have been conducted
a little sooner,” he said. “In the same respect, we had pretty
good decisions. We’ve got a reasonable document that will be good
for the students.”
The new document takes away
two member at large positions and replaces them with one transfer
student seat and one graduate student seat. However, the
committee decided to take out the Constitutional Committee’s
proposal offering an International student representative.
“I think the precedent has
been set that the seats shall be based upon academic programs and
not social sets,” said Stuebe regarding the omission of the
International seat.
The Vice President, who now
has the power to appoint a chair for the Student Activities
Committee, is stripped of that power in the proposed
Constitution. Under the proposed Constitution, applicants
interested in chairing SAC will be selected by the SGA at large.
The Sergeant at Arms, who
is an elected official under the current Constitution, would be
appointed by the President and therefore denied a vote in the SGA
if the proposed revision passes, and to provide for
accountability, the Treasurer will be required to sign-off on all
SGA expenditures.
A minimum GPA needed to run
for office was set at 2.5 for undergraduate students and 3.0 for
graduate students, and a stipulation was put in barring faculty,
civil service, and executive staff who are not at least half-time
students from voting.
Many of Clement’s bolder
suggestions were struck from the Constitution and recommended to
bylaws.
His proposal set forth
Presidential veto power, which was struck down by the committee of
the whole.
Clement also proposed
hiring a paid Programming Director to take charge of SAC. “Of
course, as you all know, we don’t have a lot of programming at
this university,” he said. “This person would be devoted entirely
toward programming.”
According to Clement’s
proposal, the Programming Director would be paid somewhere between
5 and 20 hours per week, responsible for all events sponsored
through student fees and student government.
Representative Brie Hudkins
countered, “I think that you have too many people who want to get
involved on this campus to make it (the Programming Director) into
a paid position.”
In the end, the committee
did little more than establish the already existing position of
SAC chair, leaving the finer details, including whether or not the
position would be paid, up to bylaws which the SGA can change at
their discretion.
The other position that
Clement’s proposal sought to create found a similar end. A paid
Director of Public Relations, which his committee charged with
developing and maintaining the Web site and coordinating
promotions and publicity, was in large part struck down by the
committee of the whole and remanded to bylaws.
Despite the long hours and
heated debate throughout the course of the two evenings, into the
early morning, as the committee of the whole finished the last
article, a sigh of relief and feeling of accomplishment swelled in
the room.
“I think that there was
more honest debate in this than any other time in my experience
with SGA,” said Board of Trustees Representative Andrew
Hollingsead.
President Stuebe summed up
the morale of the group after the marathon was complete. “We did
one helluva job and I’m proud of the SGA.”
Since what is proposed is a
Constitutional revision, students must vote entirely for it or
entirely against it, and are prohibited from voting for some
amendments and against others. Voting for the Constitution, along
with candidates, will be held on the UIS Web site April 27 and 28.
News Briefs
Spring Volunteer Naturalist Training
Every year
over 6,000 school children visit the garden for guided hikes and
programs. The number of volunteers available to help with such
activities is limited. On Thursday, April 15 Lincoln Memorial
Garden will hold its spring naturalist volunteer training from
9A.M. – 3P.M at the Nature Center (2301East Lake Dr). Call Sally
at 529-1111 to register or for more information.
Summer
Employment Opportunity
3 positions for
summer ecology camp counselors at Lincoln Memorial Garden are
needed. Requirements include a minimum of 1 year of college,
experience with children, and a basic knowledge of science. A
high level or energy and creativity and previous camp or outdoor
education experience are recommended. Salary is $7.25 an hour
(40hr/week) from June 7-July 30, 2004. If interested contact
Sally Patterson at 529-1111 or forward resume, cover letter and 3
references by April 30 to Lincoln Memorial Garden 2301 East Lake
Dr. Springfield, IL 62707.
Prize money for student scholars
The Illinois State Historical Society invites Illinois high school
students to participate in an essay contest about Abraham Lincoln
and the Civil War era. Essays should be between 1,000 and 1,500
words with an annotated bibliography and suggestions for further
reading. The focus of the essay should be on Abraham Lincoln or a
significant event in the Civil War period in Illinois. The winner
will be awarded an award of $1,000, plus a certificate at the
Banquet of the Illinois History Symposium in December 2004. For
more information, call Tom Teague at 525-2781, or visit the
Society’s web site at
www.historyillinois.org. The deadline for 2004 is May
31.
UIS study abroad opportunities
The Global Experience Program is
offering area residents a number of opportunities to spend part of
the summer studying abroad, in subjects ranging from community
work in Jamaica to Chinese ceramic art to excavating prehistoric
sites in Germany. To receive academic credit from UIS, regular
tuition and fees and registration deadlines also apply. For
information, contact Jonathan Goldberg Belle, UIS director of
International Affairs, at 206-6678 or go to the website at
www.uis.edu/internationalaffairs/studyabroad.htm.
Financial Ad
If you have
applied for spring 2004 financial assistance, or if you are
interested in applying, you must submit all documentation to
complete your financial aid file by 5:00 p.m. on April 15th.
All required paperwork must be received in the Office of Financial
Assistance located in SAB 60 by that date. If you have questions
regarding this notice, please contact our office at (217)
206-6724.
UIS Library
Webpage Survey
The UIS
Library Webpage Usability Survey is now available to test user
satisfaction with the current UIS Library website. Changes will
be made to the site based on the comments received from those who
take the survey. There will be giveaways for those who
participate. Participants will take the survey at Brookens
Library. For more information, contact Denise Green, Coordinator
of Reference at Brookens Library, at 206-6644 or green.denise@uis.edu.
FREE MOVIE POSTER!!
Student Life
has a large promotional poster of the movie Sylvia to give away to
the first person who comes to the Student Life Office.
Latin Rhythm Sensation CUBANISMO!
Cancels Appearance at Sangamon Auditorium
Sangamon Auditorium has been
notified that the April 17 performance by CUBANISMO! has been
cancelled. There are no plans to reschedule the show. Patrons
currently holding tickets for this show have received a credit on
their Sangamon Auditorium ticket account that can be used toward
any future performance or individuals may contact the Sangamon
Auditorium ticket office at 217-206-6160 or 800-207-6960 to make
alternative arrangements.
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