April 7, 2016

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SUN FLOWER

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Photo gallery: Hippodrome perfromances continue Thursday, Saturday | PAGE 4

THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2016

VOLUME 120, ISSUE 56

THESUNFLOWER.COM

SGA passes second recommended student fees allocations TJ RIGG

REPORTER

@tj_rigg

Nearly a month after rejecting the original recommended student fees allocations, Student Government Association passed a revised recommendation Wednesday. The budget totals $9,203,284. Now the budget heads to University President John Bardo’s desk for approval. If

Bardo gives his approval, campus organizations will receive the allocations. Compared to the first debate on student fees, Wednesday’s debate was minimal. Debate lasted about five minutes before Senate passed the fees. Student Body President Joseph Shepard said this is likely due to senators realizing the difficult job of the student fees committee, which recommends the allocations.

Shepard was a member of the committee. “I think that senators realized that we’re in a crisis financially, just higher education in general, so I don’t think they didn’t want to debate, but at the end of the day, they trust us and they realize that we put the money in the best place possible.” Treasurer Mariah Smith, another member of the student fees committee, said a majority

of senators took issue with the original funding bill because that bill would have allocated no money to Mikrokosmos, Wichita State’s literary journal, and to the Baja SAE club. Under the new bill, those organizations will get some of their requested funding. Kayla Haas, editor of Mikrokosmos, said receiving $2,000 instead of $6,000 is better than getting no funding.

“We’re glad that we can at least attempt to maintain ourselves for another year while we look into other avenues for funding,” Haas said. “Of course, we would have liked the $6,000 because it would have been able to put us out and more into the community so we would have more reach.”

SEE SGA • PAGE 5

Re-elected

File Photo by Kevin Brown

Students play with color and water during the 2015 HOLI Festival of Colors.

HOLI Festival of Colors to bring piece of Hindu culture to Wichita State FIONA KEE

REPORTER

@sunflowernews

Wichita State seniors Priessia Niswantari and Aniruddha Jadhav know first hand the meaning behind the HOLI Festival of Colors. The couple will celebrate their one-year anniversary at the annual HOLI event Saturday, a Hindu festival celebrating the power of love through a colorful display of splashing colors, hosted by Wichita State’s Association of Hindu Students of America (AHINSA). Their relationship blossomed into a romance last year over bursts of purple and orange paint. “We don’t mind attending, but the clean up after is a little of a headache,” Niswantari said. “I have really long hair it’s so annoying to clean it out later. I know it sounds a little silly, but it’s fine with me. “After all, it’s only once a year, and I get to throw mud at my friends,” said. The religious festival is a showing of love, AHINSA President Ashita Singh said. Taking place between late February and the middle of March, the festival is a two-day event starting with a day of prayer, in which participants gather around a bonfire for prayers. On the second day, it is a day for celebration — HOLI. “This is a very large-scale event, especially in India,” Singh said. “HOLI is celebrated by everyone, despite your cast, class, race and gender.” To Hindus, the day of celebration is known as “Rangwali holi” or “Dhuleti.” Participants throw herbal colors at one another in a friendly game of chase.

The display of colors are meant to symbolize that participants cannot recognize or discriminate against one another, said Kushal Dave, the organization’s event coordinator. AHINSA’s founder, Prem Bajaj, said he wanted to bring a piece of India to students of all nationalities and educate them about Hindu culture. The motto of AHINSA is “have fun, eat good Indian food and learn something about Indian culture. “HOLI is the best time to throw balloons filled with colors and shoot water guns at my friends,” said Parth Amin, vice president of AHINSA. “The best part is pushing them into a pool of mud.” On Saturday, participants will be given an endless supply of colors, water and mud; they are encouraged to wear old clothes in fear of stains. Admission is $5, which includes a lunch of a paneer wrap (vegetarian sandwich wrap), samosa (a triangular savory pastry fried with spiced vegetables or meat), gulap jamun (milk-solids-based sweet mithai) and mango lassi (yogurt-based drink). Singh and her committee are hoping to host about 300 people Saturday. “I really hope there is a better turn out this weekend,” she said. “It would be nice to engage with people from all walks of life while having fun in the

« IF YOU GO:

HOLI Festival of Colors When: Noon to 3 p.m. Saturday Where: Hubbard Hall east lawn

Photo by Manny De Los Santos

Joseph Shepard celebrates an emotional win Wednesday after being elected as student body president for the second year in a row. His running-mate, Taben Azad, will serve as vice president.

Shepard, Azad win student body elections TJ RIGG

REPORTER

@tj_rigg

Cheers of triumph echoed Wednesday evening through the Rhatigan Student Center as Joseph Shepard and Taben Azad were announced as the student body president and vice president for the 2016-17 school year. Shepard and Azad were elected by a large margin over the Spark and Shockers United tickets; they were voted in by a margin of nearly 180 votes more than Shockers United, which came in second. Shepard is the current student body president under the 58th sessions of Student Government Association, while Azad serves as chairman of the campus issues committee. Shepard said he was surprised he and Azad won by a large margin. “I knew in my heart it was going to be a very close race,” he said. “If I lost, I was expecting to lose by 50. If I had the honor to win, I was maybe going to win by 20. I never expected to win by 180 at all.” The 59th session of SGA will be sworn in April 27 during a joint meeting with the 58th session. The presidential candidates on the other tickets said they hope the senators elected under their ticket can work with Shepard and Azad’s session. “Hopefully they’re all able to collaborate,” said Ruben Lebrón, the presidential candidate on

Shockers United. “There’s no more Shockers United, there’s no more Spark, there’s no more Progress, now there are not parties. Hopefully they can all work together.” Michael Schultz, presidential candidate on the Spark ticket, had similar sentiments. “I think that our vision can definitely still be executed next year in that session,” Schultz said. Both Lebrón and Schultz said they hope to serve in the next session of SGA in some capacity. Shepard acknowledged that senators from all parties were elected to office. “I think it’s important to note that there’s going to be a little bit of everyone from every single ticket on Senate representing the university,” he said. In addition to the election of a new session, an SGA constitution-

al amendment to add a Senate position specifically for a veteran passed. The amendment required 7 percent of the student body to vote. “I think that sometimes we don’t necessarily look to the Veteran Affairs or veterans in general as to what they want to see on our campus,” Shepard said. “I think that they have a different perspective.” Shepard said he was hesitant about running for re-election this year. “I spoke up in regards to a lot of issues that offended some people,” he said. “So going into this year, I was kind of hesitant to run. I’m glad that I was able to step out on faith. I’m glad my vice president elect, Taben Azad, was willing to take a chance with me and really show the university that we’re ready to progress this institution.”

2016 SGA election results

656 votes

473 votes

465 votes

Progress

Shockers United

Spark

Hugo Wall School’s new director has academic, practitioner experience MADELINE DEABLER

REPORTER

@sunflowernews

Wichita State’s Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs appointed its new director last month. Samuel Brown, who has a long list of job experiences in management of academic, nonprofit and health programs, will start the job July 1. Currently a professor and director of Nonprofit Management and Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Baltimore, Brown said his résumé will give him the extra

edge teaching in the classroom and in the workplace at WSU. “I actually spent more than a decade working across all three sectors Samuel Brown of the economy, and I now can bring that experience to bare in the classroom, along with the research that I do, as well as in the community service — that’s what allows me to connect very

strongly with health and nonprofits,” Brown said. Brown will not only have administrative duties as director, but he will also be teaching as a professor. “Some people would call me a ‘pracademic,’ which is basically a split between a practitioner and an academic,” he said. “What that describes is the first half of my professional career, because at that time I was actually a practitioner. So I worked in a non-profit sector, a government sector and full-profit organizations.

“Then 15 years ago I began an academic career, and so that is what allows me to bring to the classroom the practitioner experience that I had, so my students get the benefit of someone who has actually done the work as a public administrator.” A goal of the Hugo Wall School is to strengthen surrounding communities through community service, such as the Enough is Enough task force established last December. Brown is exploring a national movement called ‘development in place.’ “That can be accomplished

through encouraging different demographics to move into a low-opportunity community to change the character of the community to make it more attractive,” he said. “To try and make it attractive to middle and high folks to move into low-opportunity communities, to change its character.” The search committee responsible for selecting the new director had a few things in mind when loooking at candidates.

SEE HUGO WALL • PAGE 3


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