The News Record 02.24.14

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VOL. CXXXVIII ISSUE XVVVIVIII • FREE-ADDITIONAL COPIES $1

THE NEWS RECORD THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI’S INDEPENDENT, STUDENT-RUN NEWS ORGANIZATION / MONDAY, FEB. 24, 2014

STUDENT GOVERNMENT UNDERGRADUATE ELECTION ISSUE

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CHRISTINA BEER SHIVAM SHAH

WHAT ARE YOUR QUALIFICATIONS?

Christina Beer: I am a third-year information systems [student], out of the Lindner College of Business. I’m in the Lindner Honors Plus program out of the College of Business. As far as involvement in student government, starting off I was in the FirstYear Leadership program, and then my second year I was the first-ever marketing director, so that really gave me an opportunity to bring together all of our forms of communication into one centralized position and then really grow and promote those different positions. Currently, I serve as the chief of staff so I do sit on the executive board for student government. Shivam Shah: I am a second-year neuropsychology [student] with a philosophy minor. I am in the dualadmissions connections program, which gives me direct matriculation to the College of Medicine after my graduation in 2016. I am a Darwin T. Turner Scholar and I am a Turner ambassador. I am on the university funding board and I am internal vice president for the Asian American Association. This year I was elected a senator atlarge and last summer, when I fulfilled office, I worked to increase lighting on Stratford and in the Stratford area. And then over the summer I planned welcome weekend, including the foam party, the fireworks, all of that out on Sigma Sigma.

BIG TICKET ITEMS?

Beer: I want to focus on connecting the University of Cincinnati to the City of Cincinnati. I think that we have a great university but I think there can be a lot done to build a relationship with the city. The best things we can do to start building that relationship is utilizing us going to Paul Brown next year. I think that going to Paul Brown is taking that next step for students to get to go to downtown. We have a great entrepreneurship community and start up community. I actually had someone from The Brandery, one of the top start-up companies in the country, reach out to me and they said, ‘We want to connect more to University of Cincinnati students. Can we come to campus and can we promote Beer-Shah?’ And this happened within four days of putting our platform out. It was incredible that someone else even reached out to us. We think that with Paul Brown and these entrepreneurs, there is a great opportunity to give students that have creative ideas to have an opportunity to go out and start something. But even if you don’t necessarily have those ideas, maybe finding an internship or co-op with some of the area businesses. Why not utilize the great city that we live in? Shah: One item we’re really pumped about would be a Creative Collaborations Center. The CCC will be a place for collaboration and inspiration. Let’s say you’re looking for a bass player or you want to write poetry with someone or you want to start a company with someone, anything related to media, arts, technology, anything, you can go to this place and post, learn, see what other people are doing and then collaborate and form that innovation. There will be a website and in Steger, on the sixth floor, there is a space where we could put more whiteboards, more sound-proof areas and so that space can really be utilized.

VINCENT COLEMAN ANDREW PFRIEM

WHAT SPECIFICALLY DO YOU PLAN ON IMPROVING AT UC?

Beer: One of the hardest things for a student, regardless of when you are entering the university, is to take that initial step to get involved, regardless of race, age, gender or major. I think one of the first steps student government can take as an organization is being more open to students. Being more personable. Shivam and I, we want to make sure that when people come up to us they can be open with us and talk to us. Shah: Also, the branch campuses and engaging the branch campuses. They make up abut half of all UC students and I would say that we need to work on helping them get more involved and more engaged. Like Christina said, it’s taking that first step that is the hardest, but once you help them do that, you open the door. Beer: This plays off of Shivam’s experience in the past, but lighting. You look at the statistics in the Clifton area and overall the crime rates have gone down. Overall, we have become a safer campus. However, you can see crime rates increasing in the east campus and the Short Vine area. So we want to target that area and combat that by increasing the lighting in those areas by utilizing Shivam’s experience working with the city and the university. This is something that would make — especially the Short Vine area — feel much safer for students. I have seen that it is easier to start and implement initiatives by taking it step by step. We feel the best way to make this even better is to implement a text service for NightRide, then gauge it and see how that texting service is utilized by students, then looking into mobile application development.

HOW DO YOU PLAN TO IMPROVE DIVERSITY INITIATIVES ON CAMPUS?

Beer: Something that touches on diversity and safety as well is sexual assault. One in four women are sexually assaulted by the time they graduate. This is absolutely astounding and it’s something that isn’t really known by students. What we want to do is create an outlet for students to vent and learn and increase awareness of sexual assault. We really want to put it out there and make people aware and that could lead to people getting more help. We want people to know that there will be different outlets for support if this happens to you. Shah: There have been rising racial tensions throughout the year due to a number of incidents. Christina and I took a look at UC 2019, the diversity plan of 2011, and we tried to create platform initiatives based off of those things. The diversity plan has multiple goals, multiple strategies, recruitment, retention, admission and things like that on a graduate and undergraduate level. We’ve catered our platform to work for diversity, to work for inclusion. Some things are an international student-mentoring program. This is something that I have been working on for the past three to four months. We really want to have the first four or five steps for this laid out. The goal is to have a centralized program and have it sustained through UC International and student government. So far, 80 students have reached out and said that they would be interested in this program.

STUDENT GOVERNMENT 2013 ELECTION TURNOUT: 8,407 VISIT NEWSRECORD.ORG FOR ELECTION RESULTS

WHAT ARE YOUR QUALIFICATIONS?

Vincent Coleman: I am a third-year international affairs student on a prelaw track. I’ve been involved with student government for the past three years. I started out with the elections facilitations committee, and then served currently as a two-term senator for the Arts & Sciences tribunal, as well as the director of international student affairs. I was a 2013 student orientation leader. I currently serve as a [resident adviser] at Campus Park Apartments. I’m involved with the student alumni council as well as the student safety board. I was recently initiated into the Collegiate 100 Black Men’s Honorary as well. Andrew Pfriem: I am a third-year finance [student]. I’ve been involved with student government since my freshman year as well. I started off in the first-year leadership program. I worked with the director of finance and then I’ve been elected a two-term, at-large senator, so for the last two years that has been my involvement with student government. I am a College of Business scholar. I’ve been involved with ROAR since my freshman year and the Student Wellness Center as a peer financial coach. In Sigma Chi, I’ve held like four positions within Sigma Chi, one of my most recent being recruitment chair, and [in the fall] I was initiated into the Phi Rho Chi men’s recruitment honorary society. Coleman: What separates Andrew and [me] from our opposition is passion.That has shown time and time again in our previous involvement and accomplishments. We’ve been able to make the appropriate connections with administration, so it only makes it easier for when we come to them with our platform of wanting to implement this application and how can we do that. We’ve already made those contacts and we can get that done easier. We have already built that working relationship. With our experience, our passion and the fact that we’re a team and we work well together. Andrew and I were friends before, and making the choice to run together was an easy decision. When I wanted to run for student body president I had to find a vice president who shared the same passion and dedication, as well as the same height. It was an easy decision. And the message we hope to convey to the student body is that we can work to get the job done.

BIG TICKET ITEMS?

Coleman: I think a huge ticket item that seems to be getting a lot of attention is our safety pillar and that is the Be Safe UC safety application that we would like to implement. The two features of this app are one: it acts as a mobile blue help phone. Time and time again, it is brought to student government’s attention to put blue help phones off-campus, however that is very expensive and very time consuming, and so us being a generation of technology efficient individuals, an app was the most feasible option. Off campus, you can pull up this app and it acts as a blue help phone, tracks your location and you are able to talk with UCPD, as well as an operator so you feel safe off-campus as well. Pfriem: There are a lot of features that I could go on to list. You could schedule NightRides directly through the app, so you don’t have to call and deal with the hassle of the phone call dropping sometimes or them being too busy to answer your call. And then there’s something else that we really

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want to explore is the ‘Report Something Suspicious’ button, which would allow students to see on a map around them what area suspicious activity is happening. Also, concerning spirit, it’s an absolute necessity that students have transportation to and from Paul Brown stadium next season. I remember when I was a freshman, and other people told me as well there was a couple of games at Paul Brown and no one knew how to get down. Right away, we need to start working with UC Athletics to make sure that we can get the funding for transportation to and from home games.

WHAT SPECIFICALLY DO YOU PLAN ON IMPROVING AT UC?

Coleman: I would definitely improve the engagement, in terms of student government engaging the student body. That’s something we haven’t seen in a while, and I think that’s only appropriate as we advocate on behalf of the student body. Andrew and I took the initiative to go out and pinpoint the areas and different communities and how can we better a place that’s already great. It’s a platform comprised of the students for the students. And so that can be improved. If we’re elected, we would do a great job in increasing our transparency as well as engaging the student body. And working towards a more inclusive environment, an environment that is spirited, safe and the whole nine yards. Pfriem: A part of our slogan is ‘Revamping your MainStreet Experience.’ There is a lot that we would like to revamp, like refurbishing UC’s study labs. If you go to Steger or something, Steger is not the best environment, even though it’s the student life center. So it’s improving areas like those, as well as individual colleges, to provide students better areas and a better environment to study. We’re also going to revamp the Bearcat Fridays. Any UC students could come and grab a hamburger, talk to student government, and it’s an easy way for student government to interact with students on a regular basis. There’s a lot of opportunity with Bearcat Fridays, so it’s something that we would really like to bring back.

HOW DO YOU PLAN TO IMPROVE DIVERSITY INITIATIVES ON CAMPUS?

Coleman: I think that it starts with inclusion. Yes, you can recruit, but how can you retain and then include? For us, being a diverse slate, we can work with the various departments here, starting with the African American Cultural Resource Center, working closely with Bleuzette Marshall, who was recently appointed chief diversity officer and pinpointing these issues. But it’s outside of just black and white. There’s disability services. A part of our platform is implementing a ‘Cat Car’ which, if you were on crutches or in a wheelchair, you could get around campus smoothly, because as we all know, UC is not the most accessible campus. Even with the LGBTQ community, working closely with the center and finding ways in which we can further make this place an inclusive environment for everyone that’s here. And so I would say part of that is engagement. We go out and we find what’s going on. Pfriem: I think he pretty much covered it.

STUDENTS CAN VOTE FOR CANDIDATES ON BLACKBOARD WEDNESDAY MORNING THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING

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