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Three tickets vie for SGA office
Rachel Peters
Senior News Editor
Update: Meyer, Scanlon, and Borton have won the election.
Election polls for the 2007-08 Student Government Association (SGA) Executive Council opened Tuesday at 8 a.m. and will continue until 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 28 in Gallagher Student Center. This year’s tickets include junior Willie Byrd and sophomores Jackie Baker and Esteban Gamboa; junior Maggie Meyer, sophomore Craig Scanlon and junior Kailin Borton; and senior Andrew Smith and juniors Ray O’Brien and Dave Sandmann.
All Xavier graduate and undergraduate students are allowed to participate in voting exercises upon showing an All Card.
While all three tickets hope to improve student parking and shuttle services and would like to implement an off-campus meal plan and All Card access to the dorms, each ticket has unique platforms and issues about which they are passionate.
Byrd, Baker and Gamboa are focusing their energies on expanding mentorship programs for pre-law and pre-med majors, improving security and availability of student parking, recruiting a more diverse international student base, and providing new jerseys and equipment for club sports.
The Byrd, Baker, and Gamboa ticket is passionate about diversity and claim to be “the most diverse ticket.” If elected, these individuals hope to increase international representation on campus as well as begin providing financial aid for international students. Gamboa believes that international representation broadens the perspective of the university as a whole, brings textbooks to life and helps build the entire person.
The Byrd, Baker, Gamboa ticket also believes that student parking is a big concern, especially during men’s basketball games. These three students want to make the student body happy and make them feel as though their parking, especially that for commuters taking night classes, is a priority. This ticket also claims to have a close relationship with Dr. Luther Smith who is in charge of campus parking and that, if elected, they will be heard on this issue.
Byrd currently serves as the Legislative Vice President of SGA, while Gamboa serves as SGA’s Student Affairs Senate Chair. Baker has served on SAC for the past two years.
Meyer, Scanlon and Borton hope to provide a weekend shuttle service within the Cincinnati area, an inter-faith prayer facility on campus, “study days/dead days” before exams and improved handicap accessibility on campus.
This ticket believes to have the most focused platform in that they “developed it from the results of a survey that [they] administered to all undergraduate students to assess what the greatest student needs are to improve campus life at Xavier.” This ticket prides themselves on authentic representation to the student body.
The Meyer, Scanlon and Borton ticket also hopes to continue to focus SGA efforts on getting students involved in serving the community. These three hope that, as student leaders, they are also representative of the community service that takes place on and around campus and other student activities.
Meyer currently serves as SGA’s Senate Coordinator, while Scanlon serves as the Community Affairs Senate Chair for SGA. Borton is currently chair of SAC.
The Smith, O’Brien and Sandmann ticket want to bring a Skyline Chili cart to Gallagher Student Center, install sand volleyball courts on campus and take a more proactive approach to student concerns, including those of CAP students.
As this year’s underdog ticket, Smith, O’Brien and Sandmann believe to be the most unique ticket and the one that desires the most change. Smith claims that, if elected, his ticket will not be a hierarchy of power but will lead together and work together. Smith believes that he “has something to fight for” and that “the system is broken and needs change.”
As their campaign T-shirt states, this ticket wants to “support our students.” This ticket is fed up with how SGA is currently working and believes that the average student doesn’t know SGA members or what it does. Smith believes that one of the biggest issues facing SGA is student apathy and believes that, as leaders, they need to be more active and accessible. This ticket hopes to initiate “Brock Walks,” in which SGA executives actually walk around residence halls. Students that have chosen to keep their doors open can voice their concerns to their representatives.
Smith and O’Brien are both SGA senators, while Sandmann is new to SGA.
Behind the elections...
Campaigning has taken place over the last several weeks. Although each ticket goes about campaigning in different ways, each ticket must not spend over $300 on campaigning, although this money comes directly from the candidates themselves. The candidates claim that these expenditures are justified by their love for SGA and their desire to improve student life on campus.
Voter turnout has risen steadily over the last several years from around 600 voters in the 2003/04 elections to around 1,100 voters in last year’s election. The candidates hope that this year provides the greatest voter turnout yet. Aside from promoting their own platforms, each ticket has also tried to promote voting and the opening of polls as well. Some candidates feel that voting should take place for longer than two days and the election should even include online voting in the future.
In order to promote each ticket’s platform, the Student Board of Elections held a debate on Monday night. Although this election forum is entitled a debate, the tickets do not actually make arguments against each other’s platforms and ideas. The Student Board of Elections asks a series of questions to each ticket, including what they believe to be the biggest issue facing SGA and campus. Although candidates hoped for a better turnout, they reported that only about 40 students were in attendance, including several SGA members. Many candidates believe that this event was poorly advertised, although the debate was then broadcast all day Tuesday and Wednesday on the Muskie campus channel 18.
Seniors propel XU to 3 seed
Emily Neubauer
Contributing Sportswriter
Women's A10 Bracket. Click to enlarge. It’s been quite a season for the women’s basketball team, and as the season winds down the momentum seems to be picking up. Freshman forward Amber Harris was awarded her record 12th Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week award, while notching her tenth double-double of the season.
Harris scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds en route to a 64-48 win over Fordham at Cintas Center last Thursday afternoon. Harris’ 16 came on an 8-of-14 effort. Senior guard Suntana Granderson scored four 3-point field goals for 12 points and came up with four assists and three steals.
Senior forward Joei Clyburn snagged 10 rebounds and was one point shy of her sixth double-double on the season. Clyburn was an impressive 7-of-7 from the free throw line. Sophomore guard Jerri Taylor tied her career high with 11 points and was 5-of-10 from the floor.
Fordham jumped out early with a 7-4 lead but after Granderson buried a long 3-pointer, the Musketeers went up 9-7 and never looked back. Going into the half, the team led 29-18.
Fordham did not disappear, however, cutting that lead to 34-30 with 13:20 left in the game. Xavier seized control of the game with a 20-6 run over the next 6:40 to take a commanding 54-35 lead with only 6:40 to go. The run was capped by a Granderson 3-pointer and was spurred by seven points from Taylor.
Xavier protected the ball exceptionally, turning it over only six times.
They also out-rebounded Fordham 42-39 and out-scored the Rams 18-4 in second-chance points. Despite that, however, the Muskies were cold from the floor, shooting just under 35 percent from the floor. Fordham was even worse off, shooting just 32 percent from the field.
With the win, Xavier improved to 22-7 on the season and 10-3 in conference play. Fordham falls to 3-24 overall and 1-12 in the A-10. The 22 wins mark the third most in the history of the women’s program.
They have won six games in a row, marking the longest winning streak since the 2003-04 season.
Xavier returned to action on Sunday afternoon with a 74-44 thumping of Rhode Island. Clyburn scored 20 points to go with nine rebounds while Taylor added a career-high 14 points.
The Musketeers finish the conference season with an 11-3 mark.
Harris posted her 11th double-double of the year with 10 points and tied a career high with 16 rebounds. Harris had a typical afternoon defensively, blocking six shots to finish the regular season with a record 125 rejections. She also became the new freshman scoring record holder with 489 points.
Granderson netted 11 points against the Rams. She also snared five rebounds and dished-out a pair of assists prior to being honored during post game Senior Day ceremonies along with Clyburn, Miranda Green, DeAnna Mason and Michele Miller.
Mason continued her solid play, scoring nine points and collecting nine rebounds. Clyburn’s 20 points came on 9-of-10 shooting to go with four blocked shots. Taylor was 5-of-6 from the floor including a scorching 4-of-5 from beyond the 3-point arc.
The Musketeers put this one away early, jumping to a 13-2 run 3:20 into the first half. URI pulled within eight points, 17-9, but the Musketeers dominated for the remainder, out-scoring the Rams 29-11 over the final 12:30 and went into the locker room up 46-20.
It was more of the same in the second half as Xavier lead by as many as 31 points and cruised to the 74-44 triumph over the Rams.
Looking ahead, the Musketeers are the third seed in the A-10 tournament this weekend. They get a bye in the first round and face the winner of the Richmond/St. Louis game. The game will take place on Saturday at Cintas Center.
Brian Bowsher 
Editor-in-Chief
Jennifer Downing
Senior News Editor
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