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Tuesday, April 8, 2014
SPJ, USA Today promote reading Students who ‘Get Caught Reading’ newspapers can win prizes By Mark Hammontree | News Editor In order to promote the College Readership service and to encourage students to read newspapers, The University of Alabama’s chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists will partner with USA Today and The New York Times for Get Caught Reading Day. Throughout the day on Tuesday, students across campus can tweet photos for an opportunity to win prizes. In past years, the campaign has consisted of SPJ members canvasing campus to take photos of students reading newspapers, but this year, Get Caught Reading will rely on students to submit their own photos. “We decided this year, instead of walking all over campus on a specific day and finding people reading either The Crimson White, The New York Times or USA Today and giving out prizes, we’d have people send in photos,” President of SPJ Casey Voyles said. “Since we have such a big campus, and it’s growing everywhere, it would take so many of us to spread
all over campus all day long, and so it’s just more effective and more efficient if we have people just tweet in pictures.” Voyles said any student can participate by simply tweeting their photos using the hashtag #getcaught and tagging @UASPJ and @USATODAYcollege. “It’s pretty short and simple; they could be reading USA Today, The New York Times or The Crimson White, just reading some sort of newspaper,” Voyles said. “USA Today, of course, likes the Twitter idea because they can track it throughout the day, too. It may put a little bit more pressure on us, but it’s kind of encouraging, too, to make it bigger and better than it was in previous years.” The best submitted photos in a variety of categories will be chosen by SPJ leadership, and the winners will be announced Wednesday. “The New York Times and also USA Today have donated us prizes to give out,” Voyles said. “We’ll be looking for the funniest pictures, the best visual pictures and the best group pictures, all that sort of stuff.”
Other u n ive r s i t i e s and campuses will hold their own Get Caught Reading events on other dates, but Voyles said Tuesday’s event is specific to the University. The University, the journalism department and SPJ have long had a good relationship with USA Today, and Voyles said she sees this campaign as an example of that connection and an opportunity for SPJ to express gratitude for the College Readership program that provides students free copies of USA Today and The New York Times at newsstands across campus. “USA Today has been a great partnership with UA and the journalism department and all of us,” Voyles said. “They encourage us each and every year to try out for things, you know, each competition and scholarship that they have, and it’s important that since they support us, we support them and show them that we’re grateful for the ability that we have to get these papers every day. It’s kind of a luxury that not every campus has, and we’re very thankful for our partnership with them.”
CW | Austin Bigoney Students can win prizes by submitting photos of themselves reading newspapers on campus Tuesday.
New SGA staff begins transition into Bloom administration By Katie Shepherd | Contributing Writer With the start of April comes the official transition of the Student Government Association from the outgoing Jimmy Taylor administration to that of newly inaugurated SGA president Hamilton Bloom. On Tuesday, April 1, the newly elected executive officers for the 2014-15 academic year were inaugurated in front of the Gorgas House as part of Honors Week tradition. This week, all incoming officers are expected to conduct transition meetings with the outgoing officers in their positions. This will ensure that each officer will be able to pick up where the last left off and is meant to leave the incoming officers ready to start strong next semester.
Monday night marked the first official meeting of the incoming executive officers. Though the semester is quickly coming to a close, these officers are sure to be busy. Bloom said during the meeting that executive officers will soon take on many new, exciting projects to get things rolling early. “This year we will be focused on larger, more wide-scale projects,” Bloom said. Mary Wills, SGA chief of staff, said the main focus for the duration of the semester wil be on recruiting applicants for cabinet positions. Wills said they are currently contacting student organizations and relying heavily on word of mouth to help encourage students to sign up. Wills said the online applications opened last Friday and are set to close Sunday at
noon. Anyone interested in joining the SGA is strongly encouraged to apply. As of 5 p.m. Monday, 59 director applications have been received, with 150-200 expected to be received by Friday. Interviews for cabinet positions are to be conducted by SGA officers from April 16 to 18. Final decisions on next year’s cabinet will be decided at the meeting Monday, April 21. Those accepted will receive emails by Wednesday, April 23. Bloom said there will be a press release by the end of the week outlining any upcoming projects the SGA hopes to take on for the remainder of the semester and into next year. Official appointments of new officers will occur at a Tuesday night meeting,
followed by a meeting on Thursday to discuss the approval of the cabinet, Bloom said. As for the recent vote in the final session of the 2013-14 senate to end a proposed resolution to support Greek system integration, Bloom said his administration plans to revisit the issue. “I will be presenting a new version of the resolution tomorrow at the session,” Bloom said. Though there are many new faces, and therefore new schedules to work around, SGA Senate meetings are expected to be conducted at the same time next semester: Mondays at 7 p.m. Because of the SGA’s recent move into Russell Hall, the location of the meetings has yet to be determined.