Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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ciccTion • conTinucofRomi second-place finish with 735 votes, or 20 percent. Third-year political science student Julian Raymond finished with 364 votes, or 9.9 percent. Holt received 2,093 votes, or 61 percent over second place candidate Sonam Shah, who garnered 31 percent of the vote with 1,057 votes. Third-year pre-law student Josh Goodman trailed with 243 votes. Shah congratulated the candidates and said she intends to stay active within the student body. “I’d like to stay involved with Student Government, and I still believe it’s a great cause. I think the people who got elected will do a great job,” said Shah. Shah’s platform was centered on accessibility, which she translated as creating a more direct relationship between, senator* and student organizations, something she said was lacking in the last administration. Shah also contrasted Williams’ administration of numerous, sweeping initiatives with her proposed idea of achieving policy goals with fewer projects, which would yield quicker benefits for students. Jones and Goodman, who both ran on somewhat similar platforms of reaching out to students and improving communication, did not attend the Tuesday announcement. Outgoing president Williams echoed Holt’s assessment that the duo was handed a mandate by the students. “Tommy and Ryan have a school-wide mandate. It’s obvious that what we have done over the past year have the students’ approval,” Williams said. “Even though this year for them has been great, it’s going to be awesome next year.” The runoff election between Setzler and Guest will begin at 9 a.m. Thursday and run until 5 p.m. Friday. Setzler narrowly nudged out second-year math student Steve Smith, winning 28 percent of the treasurer vote to Smith’s 2 5 percent. Smith’s dominant campaign idea was the creation of an SG-sponsored textbook exchange Web site similar to eBay, where students would be able to buy and sell their books at prices competitively indexed to the Russell House Bookstore. “It was a solid race. We don’t regret anything we did, and I wish the best of luck to the runoff candidates,” said • Smith’s campaign director, second-year political science student Jonathan Ross. “I’m glad to be in the runoff. It means a lot to me,” Setzler said. “This has been the long-distance marathon to get here; now it’s the sprint to the finish.” Setzler will have to attract a large voting bloc to beat Guest; Guest received 597 more votes than Setzler in Tuesday’s race, 5 percentage points shy of the necessary 51 percent of the vote needed to be elected an executive council member. Guest has no plans to run a more intense runoff campaign. “(I’m) pretty much going to keep it the same. People seem to really like what I was doing, so why change it up?” Guest said. “Just because you’re in the runoff doesn’t change the kind of candidate you are.” Guest said she was a little more anxious than before, however. “I think I’m more nervous now than I was to begin with. I was sitting next to the trash can for a reason,” joked Guest, making a vomiting gesture. Guest’s platform centers around expanding the use of the CarolinaCard both on and off campus and establishing the comptroller system to aid in the student organization budget process. Setzler’s campaign focuses on broader plans to build a satellite parking lot, improving the academic adviser system and maximizing student organization funds. Williams kept a neutral prognostication of the upcoming runoff. “Both of them are great candidates,” Williams said. “Depending on what you’re looking for, the students have to make the decision on who they want to take care of their money.” Students also voted yes for both referendums on the ballot, allowing Student Government to amend its constitution to provide for a judicial body within itself to handle constitutional challenges and potential impeachment processes. The body was proposed last year in the Senate as to be separate of the Carolina Student Judicial Council, which had been the de facto handler of SG constitutional questions. The referendum to raise per-semester student activity fees by $2 to pay for the USA Today Readership Program was also approved. Several candidates and student senators have come out in opposition to raising student fees to pay for the program; both Preston and Holt promised not to unilaterally raise the fee without consent from the student body. The vote was razor thin on the constitutional amendment — 1,280 affirmative votes to 1,230 nays — while 430 more voters approved the increase in student activity fees. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu FOOD • COflTinUED FROdll be willing to pay more to eat healthier foods,” Zeigler said. Ashley and Sima faced the same concerns whep, in the basement of Immaculate Consumption coffee shop, they met with L. Emile DeFelice, the S.C. director for the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, a pro-organic farm organization. Joining them was Coleman and Trish Jerman of the Sustainable Universities Initiative. DeFelice, who owns a hog farm near Columbia, had spoken with Scheffres before about organic foods. “My job with Mike was to alleviate some fears. I wanted to make sure he knew that this wasn’t going to be a guy driving up in a wagon full of squash,” DeFelice said. DeFelice’s advice was to focus on local foods first. South Carolina provides a variety of agricultural products, from ubiquitous Coburg milk in Charleston to local eggs and chicken. Ashley says it’s the logical way to begin negotiating the price concerns. “Local foods are going to be easier to bring. It’s available right now, it’s priced competitively.” It was DeFelice who suggested bringing a local plate to campus, taking the idea from a twice-monthly locally grown breakfast event at Gervais & Vine restaurant, featuring local grits, rice, pork, dairy, eggs and other breakfast dishes with the farmers’ goods. Incorporating the state’s agricultural yield into meals at USC and beyond is also a matter of economics. “I was eating with Mayor Bob Coble at a restaurant one day and asked him, ‘wouldn’t it be great if you were hosting some German engineering company to persuade him to invest in your city, and you served up a great local meal?’ DeFelice said Columbia could improve its likability by providing investors with local, ahem, flavor. “If you look at any city with a hi-tech industry — San Jose, D.C. — they all have a rocking local food scene. ” Jerman said convincing students and USC administrators “seems to be an educational issue. Food should be what’s good for you, good for your farmer and good for your environment.” A vfeek later, Scheffres was warming to the idea as he listened to Ashley recount the fruits of the meeting. Scheffres said one option would be to select a group of products from United Natural Foods to gauge students’ interest. Some options include tofu dogs, Boca burgers and organic yogurts. In the meeting, Zeigler mentioned plans to renovate spaces in the Grand Market Place where healthier salads and “on-the-go” lunch packages could feature organic and local options. Zeigler, who says she is “personally invested” in getting sweet tea right in the new Humanities cafeteria, says the local plate would help “establish our identity ... and reflect the uniqueness of our culture” in South Carolina. “For instance, if we can’t get good sweet tea in South Carolina, where can we get good sweet tea?” Ashley and his group said they aren’t stopping with getting better food. Discussions were had in the meeting about packaging changing materials used on campus, as well as increasing l the use of the EarthTub compost heap. According to Ashley, Scheffres and Zeigler paid a visit to Gervais and Vine’s breakfast last Saturday. “Scheffres e-mailed me earlier this week. He said he had bought some grits to take home and try out. He wrote, ‘After that great breakfast, we bought some of Emile’s products and can’t wait to try it out.’” From the sound of the response, Scheffres and Zeigler were very satisfied' with a taste of what the students hope to bring to USC’s plate. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc. edu GMAT 1 GRE I LSAT I MCAT I DAT I OAT I PCAT Take a FREE practice test at this event and you’ll receive a detailed score analysts and exclusive strategies to help you prepare for Test Day! February 25th 10am Humanities Classroom Building USC Campns ffae following tern will be offered: LSAT. GMAT, GRE, MCAT, DAT, PCAT EN ROLL Limited seats are available. Call 1-800-KAP-TEST TODAY or visit kaptest.com/practlce. •Test names are registered trademark* of their respective owners. 6PGA0003 dont Fake it «s\ng an alfatad d»lvt»‘s H<«n«« <m Wf y**> 90 DAY SUSPENSION OP YOUR LICENSE RHR • CODTIflUED fROIRI $20 and are available at the Russell House Information Center. Proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to two charity organizations: Camp Hope, a statewide camp for mentally handicapped citizens, and Camp Sertoma, a camp that caters to speech impaired, hearing-impaired and underprivileged children. The conference center is located at 169 Laurelhurst Ave., near Interstate 26. The formal is open to all USC students. RHA is also talking to Ruckus, a free downloading music program for colleges, about bringing the program to the USC campus. Ruckus would be free for USC students if it is promised 3,000 campus users. RHA Vice President Jonathan Ross, a second year political science student, said Ruckus would benefit from the partnership by using it as free advertising ■ for potential clients. Student Government has expressed interest in teaming up with RHA to provide this service. » Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gwm. sc. edu 11 T eadership and Service Awards 11 We are now accepting applications and nominations for the 2006 Leadership and Service Awards! ▲ u Due Date: March 3, 2006 bM ■ For more information or to Apply or Nominate for y Leadership Awards go to: www.sa.sc.edu/leaders/awards.htm 11_Service Awards go to: www.sa.sc.edu/communityservice/awards.htm_|j - 1111 %- - —ml Cultural Awareness Commission Brings you: The Amazon River is th terms of ~P < . m ~8 watershed area, vAime of water TI TiTa I arged. Most < country?