The Oklahoma Daily

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TUESDAY MARCH 30, 2010

TTHE HE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF O OKLAHOMA’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT VOICE

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Students dish about whether er they will vote in the UOSA elections today and Wednesday. See page 3A.

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Korean Night embraces tradition, modern culture CASEY WILSON Daily Staff Writer

Korean Night promoted better understanding of both traditional and modern Korean culture Monday at the Oklahoma Memorial Union. “We’re basically trying to spread the Korean culture across the campus, and get to the general student body so they can learn more and appreciate the Korean culture more,” said Jason Kim, Korean Student Association vice president. Performances included HwaKwanMu, a traditional

Korean dance and a traditional Korean drum line. “One of the missions of the Korean Student Association is The event also included a dance performance to a modern to present Korean culture to everyone else,” she said. song. Kim said he thinks many people in the U.S. may have misKorean Night began with pizza for attendees and contin- conceptions of Koreans. ued with performers dancing in traditional Korean attire. “Some of them think Korea is still a rural county, we still Young people presented the martial art Taekwondo and tra- do farming,” he said. “They still think we’re a third-world ditional Korean percussion songs. country.” The 50 or so performers and back-stage crew have been Though Korean Night had some traditional performances, preparing for Korean Night for four months, said Kim, micro- it also presented the modern side of Korea, Kim said. biology junior. “I think through Korean Night they’re going to get a deeper Misun No, pre-nursing junior, said she helped prepare the understanding of our culture, modern culture, instead of the production of Korean Night. KOREAN CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

UOSA PRES, VP VOTER GUIDE Today is the first of two days in which students can vote in the UOSA Spring 2010 General Elections. Polling places are set up across campus and online at elections. ou.edu. The Daily is providing you a short glance of the UOSA Executive Branch candidates’ main points they presented in past events. ALLY GLAVAS AND ZAC MCCULLOCK • Improve advising through surveys and collaboration • Create a student-friendly Dead Week policy • Increase and improve on-campus mass transit and parking • Make improvements to oZONE • Create Department of Sustainability • Create more avenues for feedback to UOSA from all students • Simplify the budget process for student organizations • Establish a freshman mentor program for student government • Increase hospitality and services to international students • Increase number of translated OU documents for international students • Expand efforts to welcome international students at the airport when they arrive

• Fostering an environment for more collaboration between student groups on events, projects and initiatives through biannual umbrella organization meetings Source: allyandzac.com FRANZ ZENTENO AND CORY LLOYD • Promote the accessibility of education and online study tools through “OU enotes,” an online library containing notes, presentations and educational tools • Create an electronic database to enhance and streamline the opportunities for students to get involved • Utilization of social media as an accessible tool that will inform students of available parking around campus • Work on improving and expanding the current free laptop rental system (48 hours) through UOSA with the support of OUIT • Promote increased visibility of environmental sustainability on campus • Build stronger ties to our city so that we both can help and support each other • Examine all aspects of UOSA to streamline the organization and form a UOSA Communications Task Force to promote the sharing of new ideas and improve relations between the four branches

“Uncontested Elections Amendment” This amendment would require UOSA officials who run uncontested to automatically run again in the next general election.

PROPOSITION 2 “Student Organization Empowerment Amendment” This amendment would create a fifth branch of UOSA, a Student Organization Branch, and would alter the voting method to accommodate this branch.

• Allow students to propose legislation to UOSA with a petition signed by 8 percent of voters in the last election. • Allow students to bring legislation to a campuswide vote with a petition signed by 5 percent of votes cast in the last election. • Allow students from any district to call an early election with a petition signed by 12 percent of the number of students in that district who voted in the last election. • Place restrictions on the UOSA legislative branch from amending the constitution to effect the process for initiatives, referendums and early elections • Require that UOSA elections be reasonably publicized three weeks in advance.

PROPOSITION 4 PROPOSITION 3 “Voter Rights Amendment” This amendment includes the following proposals: • Uncontested UOSA officials would be placed on the ballot with the language, “Shall [candidate’s name] be elected as [representative/ office position]?” • Guarantee that students reserve the right to enact or reject legislation at the polls. • Restrict many joint resolutions from taking effect for 90 days of passage. • Make academic standing the only requirement for holding a UOSA office, and restrict UOSA from imposing any other qualifications. • Guarantee that UOSA does not impose restrictions on students’ right to free expression. • UOSA president and vice president run on separate tickets. • Replace the current presidential run-off system with an automatic run-off system. • Make OU’s representative to the Student Advisory Board an elected position.

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CAC chair up for vote Campus Activities Council chair candidates hope to increase student involvement if elected KATHLEEN EVANS Daily Staff Writer

UOSA CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

REFERENDUMS HIT THE BALLOT PROPOSITION 1

JALL COWASJI/ THE DAILY

“True Democracy Amendment of 2010” This amendment would increase the number of signatures required for recall petitions and petitions to place an amendment on the UOSA ballot from 25 percent of those voting in the last election to 10 percent of all eligible voters. This amendment also would require petitions to amend the UOSA constitution to have at least 1,000 signatures.

PROPOSITION 5 “Poll for possible fee” This proposition is a poll that will ask students if they would consider consenting to a proposed $2 per semester study abroad fee. To view the amendments, visit www.ou.edu/ uosa/exec/spring_election.html. —Troy Weatherford/The Daily

Students will vote for Campus Activities Council chair today and Wednesday in UOSA’s general elections. This year, two candidates are running for the position: Valerie Hall, public relations junior, and Shane Pruitt, microbiology junior. CAC hosts 13 events each academic year for students — four in the fall, six in the spring and three throughout the year, according to its Web site. CAC is managed by the chair and a group of 22 people, called the General Council. This group meets during the year with event chairs to coordinate and manage each of the 13 events. Students choose the CAC chair in the elections and the other positions are appointed. VALERIE HALL valerie4cacchair.webs.com Hall is running on a platform of “Strength in Tradition.” One thing she said she wants to do is bring back a traditional event called CAC Week. “It’s a weeklong event of activities,” Hall said. “Like Film Series could host a movie. But to make it different, I want to allow other organizations to collaborate with CAC and start an event. For example, [an organization] could help plan a concert, just to increase community and get everyone engaged and participating in CAC.” CAC Week would ultimately allow students to get more exposure to what CAC does and allow smaller organizations to get more publicity through the partnership. Hall also said she wants to make sure chairs and executive committee members are getting the most out of CAC that they can. “Everyone should feel like they helped plan the event, gained new experiences and helped foster leadership development,” Hall said. “For me, CAC has been a chance to learn leadership experience that I couldn’t get in the classroom, so I want to help give that to the rest of the people involved in CAC.” Hall said she has always been involved with CAC’s Winter Welcome Week, starting as an executive member her freshman year and working up to this year’s chair position. She also was a part of the Family Weekend executive committee and has participated in or volunteered with all the other events. Most importantly, she said, she has an emotional investment in CAC.

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“It’s really what I found here at college,” Hall said. “It’s what I really love to do, and I would love to be the chair.” SHANE PRUITT www.shanepruitt.net Pruitt is running under the theme of “A New Vision with YOU in Focus.” One of Pruitt’s visions is to include a larger variety of students in CAC events and helping CAC to become a better resource for the OU community. To get more students involved, Pruitt said, he wants to start a new event in the fall that would be a fundraiser for the Oklahoma Food Pantry. “In this event’s executive team, there will be one group that will be a liaison position that targets specifically these international or transfer students that aren’t involved in CAC,” Pruitt said. “They will create an atmosphere where this one event will be the home base for that type of students. I feel that this will create a cascade effect, and they will want to participate in other [events].” Pruitt said OU has a very active Greek life, and CAC would not be the same without this vital group. However, CAC also could benefit from bringing in more students from different backgrounds, such as the international and transfer populations, he said. To become more of a resource for the community, Pruitt said he wants to create a seminar to teach other organizations how to do public relations, sponsorship and fundraising. “There are a lot of CAC members that know the tricks of the trade of how to publicize events and get money for events,” Pruitt said. “I want to create a seminar where heads of student organizations can learn how to [do this].” Pruitt said CAC was one of the first things he became involved in when he arrived at OU. “My very first day on campus, I stepped out not knowing anything, anyone, and said, ‘OK, what am I going to do here?’” Pruitt said. “First thing I saw was the Howdy Week tent, so I went over there. The people were so engaging and interested in making me feel comfortable. That’s when I decided CAC was going to be the organization I invest my efforts in.” Since then, Pruitt said, he began working with CAC as a Howdy Week executive member. He also was on the committee for the High School Leadership Conference, serving as a vice chairman for publicity. Pruitt said he has volunteered and participated in every CAC event as well. Although he has not been a General Council member, he said he can bring a fresh perspective to the organization.

VOL. 95, NO. 123


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