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Sports: What’s going on in spring football this week? (Page 4)
Opinion: OU Athletic Department helps make fans’ dreams come true (Page 3)
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RESULTS
Elections: low turnout, no grievances Matt Epting and Sarah Campbell will lead Student Government next year MICHELLE JOHNSTON, Campus Reporter PAIGHTEN HARKINS, Campus Edtior
A little over 3.2 percent of eligible Sooners voted in Student Government Association’s new president and vice president, Matt Epting and Sarah Campbell. This year ever y position in the election, from Undergraduate Student Congress seats to the presidential position, was uncontested. Epting and Campbell received the highest percentage of eligible votes. Of the 22,055 eligible voters, only 707 voted in the presidential race, according to the election report. The new Campus Activities Council chairman, Layne Ferguson, received an even smaller percentage of votes from the 22,055, ending the two days of voting with 2.6 percent, or 577 votes. The next Student Bar Association president, Elise Puma, received 17 total votes out of the 788 eligible voters, or about 2.2 percent, according to the election report. Jeremiah Stinnett, the next Housing Center Student Association president, received 2.3 percent of the votes, or
115 of the 5,082 eligible votes, according to the election report. In April 2012 when Joe Sangirardi and Rainey Sewell ran uncontested for the president and vice presidential seats, they raked in 1,766, or about 7.9 percent of the student body, according to Daily archives. While the April 2012 presidential ticket wasn’t opposed, other positions, such as CAC chair, were contested. In the contested April 2013 elections, when Ernest Ezeugo and Madeline Grunewald won SGA president and vice president, about 3,373 students voted in total. Election chair Avik Mukherjee said he expected the low voter turnout because all the positions were uncontested. “We didn’t expect to see anything in the 2,000 range. It’s right on par with where I thought it would be,” Mukherjee said. For this year’s election, only one physical polling location was open for students, opposed to previous year’s when polling locations were open at the Law College and Dale Hall. Placed in the Oklahoma Memorial Union, less than 10 percent of students voted in person, Mukherjee said The remaining 90 percent voted online, Mukherjee said. The other physical polling locations were removed because fewer than 20 people voted in each location during the last spring election, Mukherjee said.
JESSICA WOODS/THE DAILY
Josh Vascil, broadcast and electronic media junior mans the voting table for the Student Government Association elections Wednesday afternoon. While Vascil is not a member of the SGA, he volunteered his time to give students walking through the Union an opportunity to vote if they haven’t yet.
OUTREACH
Month brings sexual talks WOC to spread knowledge MIKE BRESTOVANSKY Campus Reporter
CALEB SMUTZER/THE DAILY
the kitchen, cooking the most delicious dishes she has ever tasted. In turn, she was inspired to take up baking herself when she was older. “It’s not common, these days, for young women to bake home goods,” Smith said. “At least, not as common as it used to be.” It was while she was working on her visual communications major at OU in 2011 that Smith decided to open up a small cooking blog to share her recipes with the public. Smith said it was just for fun in the beginning and was a great place to store
OU sudent begins blog about baking, turns into business SAMA KHAWAJA
Life & Arts Reporter
Most people would read a book or watch “Breaking Bad” on Netflix to wind down from classes. Kelli Smith chose to bake. Ever since she was a little girl, Smith said she has enjoyed watching her grandmother bustle about
all her recipes. “It was kind of meditative for me,” Smith said. It was only last year, when her blog picked up in popularity, that she decided to open her own business, and Confections and Coffee was born. Operating out of her apartment, Smith didn’t have to venture far for customers. Irene Campbell, one of her closest friends, said Smith would ask close friends if they wanted to order her baked goods.
EXECUTIVES
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and the O U Women’s O u t re a c h C e n t e r h a s events planned for the next several weeks. Sexual Assault Awareness Month is a campaign by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center to raise awareness and educate people about sexual violence. “Sexual Assault Awareness Month is an important message on any campus, especially because 80 percent of women who will experience sexual assault are under the age of 30,” said Melanie Adams, the programming coordinator for the Women’s Outreach Center.
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SEE SEX PAGE 2
FRESHMAN EXPERIENCE
Epting, Campbell to take SGA office Life’s a beach for The new executive officers will take office in November for shortest term MATT WOODS
Campus Reporter
On Wednesday night, Matt Epting and Sarah Campbell celebrated the end of the presidential campaign — and they’re already making history. Although the campaign was uncontested, the future Student Government Association president and vice-president will begin the shortest term to date starting Thursday. Unofficially confirming the pair until November, Wednesday’s election tally totaled 3.2 percent of eligible student voters, according to the election report. Epting and Campbell’s transitional term will be half the length of previous terms because of a referendum passed in 2012, which changed the timing of presidential terms. WEATHER Partly cloundy with a high of 84. Wind SW at 24 mph. Chance of rain 10 percent.
“It’s probably one of the lower voter turnouts that SGA has had in its history,” said Epting, political science and public relations junior. In addition to the shortest SGA presidency, this term set a precedent for one of the lowest student voter turnouts. “[Elections] could have been a lot more stressful,” human relations major Campbell said, “It’s just exciting to see that campus is still involved.” Epting’s been involved with SGA throughout his entire time at OU. By engaging in conversations with students about their desired college experiences, Epting and Campbell developed an agenda to maximize the undergraduate student experience, Epting said.
Seafood to shopping: freshman travel cross-country to enjoy spring break EMMA SULLIVAN Campus Reporter
Following their first college spring break, members of the Freshmen Experience took some time to talk about their lives and what happened during their time off from school. For some, like Jessica Graro, spring break meant time away from the stresses of college and relaxing on the beach with friends and family.
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