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Friday, August 27, 2010 Issue 08
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E D I T O R I A L L Y
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Vol. 115
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Program to engage students in Election Day Robby O’Daniel Recruitment Editor Poll working is a seasonal profession that sees its average age, as well as a general lack of willing participants, growing. A new program on campus attempts to recruit UT students to the process. The College Student Poll Worker training program offers students $150 and a free T-shirt for coming out and working the polls on Nov. 2. In order to qualify for the program, students must be registered to vote in the county, submit an application, watch three online videos, pass a test and attend on-site training. A grant from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission made the program possible. UT was among 14 higher education institutions and one non-profit corporation to receive funding. Amy Gibson, director of communications and public programming for the Baker Center, said the program used the $61,000 of grant money to pay for promotional items and T-shirts, a brand new website for the initiative at http://www.workthepolls.com and training videos. Part of the grant money, along with aid from the Knox County Election Commission, will go to paying the $150 each to student poll workers.
“It’s possible to stretch $61,000 really far in order to accomplish the goals of the grant,” Gibson said. Laurin Riggins, junior in psychology and political science and student coordinator for the program, said material from three instructional online videos makes up the test would-be pollsters need to pass. The three training videos delve into an overview of elections in Tennessee, what poll workers do, what they cannot do based on state law, what they should do in case of Election Day problems and machine operation on Election Day. The on-site training on Oct. 16 will familiarize poll workers with the process and serve as a rehearsal of Election Day. “It’s different seeing it on a video and actually going through it and setting it up yourself,” Riggins explained. Come Election Day on Nov. 2, poll workers will come in at 7:30 a.m. to set up and prepare for polls opening at 8 a.m. They will stay until the polls close at 8 p.m. Riggins, who interned with the Knox County Election Commission and was also a poll worker during the Tennessee primaries on Aug. 5, said her work in the UC went relatively smoothly on primary day except for one problem: people come to the wrong polling place. “(They were) thinking they could just vote here because it was in the UC,” she said. “Professors would come in, staff, faculty.”
But where you vote depends on where you live. The Knox County Election Commission’s website, at http://www.knoxcounty.org/election/index.php, tells citizens their designated voting location. Just click on the “Where do I vote?” tab. Voters can also check their voter registration status at the Work the Polls website. Other duties student poll workers will engage in, she said, include assisting those with disabilities, protecting ballot secrecy and preventing voting intimidation. She said a program like the College Student Poll Worker training program is crucial, especially with the shortfall of poll workers in the country. “Administering fair and accurate elections, you can’t do that without the correct number of poll workers,” she said. In addition, specifically having new poll workers that are young can come in handy. “Young people do tend to pick up the technology a little more quickly,” she said. But also the program introduces young people to Election Day, she said. “We want this next generation of young people to be working at the polls and being engaged in the political process and being active voters and active participants in democracy,” she said. “And this is a way to energize young people about voting and elections and the democratic process.”
College women at higher risk for rape Robbie Hargett Staff Writer As the new academic year approaches full swing, it is important that students keep in mind the potential danger of domestic violence and sexual victimization on campus. “The National Institute of Justice, in an exhaustive study of sexual assault on college campuses, determined that college women are at higher risk for sexual assault than their non-college-bound peers,” Joseph Jarret, Knox County law director and adjunct lecturer for UT’s Department of Political Science, said. According to the report, “the national-level survey of 4,446 college women suggests that many students will encounter sexist and harassing comments, will likely receive an obscene phone call, and will have a good chance of being stalked or of enduring some form of coerced sexual contact.” The report, “The Sexual Victimization of College Women,” suggests that over the course of their college careers as many as one-fourth of female students will experience sexual assault. The study measured verbal, visual and physical types of sexual victimization ranging from sexist statements to completed rape, as well as stalking, “a form of victimization often ignored by college officials,” but which is, in fact, relatively prevalent, according to the report. The report also states that some college women are more susceptible to sexual victimization than others. Common factors that contribute to this increase include “living on campus, being unmarried, getting drunk frequently and experiencing prior sexual victimization.” Most sexual victimizations occur when college women are alone with a man they know, at night and in the privacy of a residence. For completed rapes on campus, nearly 60 percent occurred in the victim’s residence, 31 percent occurred in other living quarters and 10 percent occurred at a fraternity. “There exist federal mandates, such as the Student Right to Know and Campus Security Act of 1990 and the Campus Sexual Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights of 1992, relative to the reporting of such crimes,” Jarret said. Jarret notes, however, that there is much discrepancy in the effectiveness of college policies concerning incidents of sexual victimization, as well as “availability and effectiveness of confidential, social and mental health counseling services available to victims of sexual assault.” Following the incidents, these women often did not report sexual victimization to the police, the cause stemming initially from the fact that nearly 90 percent of completed or attempted rape victims knew the offender personally — a classmate, friend, current or former boyfriend or girlfriend. In an article by the Mayo Clinic, experts suggest that “the only way to break the cycle of domestic violence is to take action — and the sooner the better.” “One step in the right direction is the use of protocols for coordinating the responses of local law enforcement agencies when investigating incidents of sexual assault,” Jarret said. Jarret also suggests that colleges should distribute easily comprehensible and accessible sexual assault policies, which clearly define the various types of sexual victimization, while addressing the common situations in which sexual victimization and domestic violence occur. “Cleary, the aforementioned is by no means an exhaustive list,” Jarret said.
Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon
Max Mueller, Xavier Jones, Andrew Burks and Chris Shapiro, seniors in computer engineering, and Jonathan Coplon, senior in electrical engineering, help each other with engineering homework in the Commons. The library has implemented a card swipe system to allow students in, between the hours of midnight and 7 a.m., Sunday through Thursday.
Tia Patron• The Daily Beacon
Moe’s on the Strip offered free burritos to customers from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday. The line of burrito-seeking students was out the door before 5 p.m.
Spring break trip offers students chance to help, break from class Rob Davis Staff Writer Each year during UT’s fall break, the Office of Student Activities offers students an opportunity for service. Through a program called TeamVOLS, the university sponsors Fall Break service trip to help those that are less fortunate. The university has been sponsoring such trips for the last 15 years. “Instead of taking off, students apply for a trip to do community service in another area of the country,” Matt Moore, group leader and junior in finance, said. “Last year, the trip destinations included Louisville, Ky., Winston-Salem, N.C., and Boone, N.C.” To be able to participate in Alternative Fall Break, students must fill out an application, which must be filled out by Sept. 3rd. Applications may be filled out on the TeamVOLS website, and students must go by suite 315A in the UC to sign up for an interview time. Although students apply early for the trip, they apply without knowing where they will end up during their fall break. “Applicants apply and are selected without knowing the location of the trip, which is top secret until a few days before the trip departure,” Alicia White, senior in biological sciences and team leader for Alternative Fall Break, said. “TeamVOLS
wants the students applying for serving others rather than applying for a location. In years past, Alternative Break Programs have traveled to New Orleans, Charleston, (S.C.), Appalachia, WinstonSalem, Cincinnati, and Roanoke, Va., just to name a few.” About 24 students are selected after the interview process. Subsequently, the students are broken into two groups, each with two team leaders. The group works alongside many different organizations, such as Goodwill, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the Salvation Army. The trip is an opportunity for students who want to be involved on campus as well as in the community. Moore said the trip gives students a chance to help less fortunate areas of the country, as well as to get a different perspective on the ways some people live. “I went on an Alternative Spring Break trip in 2009, where we went to Cincinnati,” Moore said. “Although I took the trip my freshmen year, I still talk to the 24 members of my team and some who are my best friends to this day. This has been one of the best experiences I have been a part of since I have been at UT, and I get the privilege to lead an alternative break trip this year with one of my best friends from my Alternative Spring Break Cincinnati trip. Take the opportunity to apply for a trip of a lifetime.”