FOUR MORE YEARS
ELECTION OVER
Students cheer and jeer after election results
NIKKI WENTLING
nwentling@kansan.com
About 50 students gathered in the lobby of the Kansas Union to watch as Barack Obama was announced the winner of the 2012 Presidential Election last night.
When Obama reached 270 electoral votes and Wolf Blitzer of CNN announced that he was re-elected.
cheers erupted from many of the students in attendance.
"I voted for president Obama," said David Gier, a sophomore from Overland Park. "It's looking like Democrats will have majority in Senate, so we'll see how he will be able to enact his agenda, but I'm hopeful. He accomplished a lot in his first term."
Obama
Gier's friends, Chris Rice, a sophomore from Overland Park and Samantha Brunker, a sophomore from Kansas City, Mo., agreed.
Brunker said she would like to see Obama focus more on social issues in his second term.
"I'm really happy with how the results turned out," Rice said. "We sort of expected him to win. We did a lot of research and mapped it out."
"I'd like to see more social changes, especially for abortion rights and birth control," she said. "But I think
it will be tough with the Congress."
As state results were announced throughout the night, attendees let out cheers or booed the screen. Swing states like Iowa and Ohio elicited the most reactions, as did California, which gave Obama 55 electoral votes.
Students stood up and applauded when Ohio went to Obama at about 10:20 p.m.
When it was announced that
When it was announced that Obama was projected to win the state and its 20 electoral votes, it brought him to 274 electoral votes with Romney trailing at 201.
A few watch party attendees, like Hannah Boyd, a freshman from Derby, shook their heads in exasperation and left worried.
"I feel a little nervous. I'm not sure what Obama's agenda is for the next four years," Boyd said. "I'm not sure what our country will be like in the next four years. I'm anxious to see what he has planned."
TRAVIS YOUNG/KANSAN
Boyd said she does not affiliate with a political party, but she supported Romney because she believes he would be better for the country economically.
Edited by Brian Sisk
Student Union Activities hosted the watch party. Students began arriving at 5 p.m.
They waited in line to grab refreshments and crowded around the screen located at the west end of the fourth floor.
Students react to poll results early in the election watch party. The election watch party was held by Student Union Activities on the fourth floor of the Kansas Union last night.
CAMPUS
Senate initiatives includes safety, Spanish minor
NIKKI WENTLING
nwentling@kansan.com
As Student Senate continues into its third wave of platform initiatives, here is a look at what has happened so far this semester and what is happening with programs that have already been established.
SPANISH MINOR
The full Senate passed a resolution at the beginning of October in support of the creation of a Spanish minor with a vote of 68-3-0. Senate submitted the resolution to Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little on Oct. 5, and the Spanish and Portuguese department is currently working on a proposal that will be forwarded to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences by the end of November.
"It has to go through a lot of different steps, but the first step has to be the Spanish department sending that proposal through," said Hannah Bolton, student body president. "We've done everything we can on the student side."
Bolton said that if plans to implement a Spanish minor were approved, the minor program
would most likely be put into effect the next school year.
Bolton and student body vice president Brandon Woodard spent the summer semester doing research and speaking with professors in the department, as well as Stuart Day, chair of the department, and Danny Anderson, Dean of CLAS.
"KU always emphasizes how strong our academics are, and we make a name for ourselves in being a leader in many areas," Bolton said. "The Spanish minor was one of those things that we need to get up to speed on."
The University is the only school in the Big 12 and the Kansas Board of Regents that does not offer a Spanish minor.
X
STUDENT BODY ADDRESS
This was an idea Woodard brought up when he served as Senate outreach director last year, and it is part of a focus to create more video content for student engagement with Senate.
During homecoming week, Bolton gave the first-ever student body address.
The address jump-started the video production schedule; Alek
HANNAH BOLTON student body president
Joyce, the current outreach director, will be creating videos for every legislative cycle. Now, Joyce is working on a video to introduce the committee process, which is open to all students.
on.'
Joyce said he hopes the student body address will become an annual tradition.
"I'd love to see it continue with more people from year to year to year," Joyce said. "I'll tell the next outreach director that this is something to keep on the radar."
In the address, Bolton discussed several senate initiatives that are underway, including the construction of cell phone charging stations, the Responsible Refreshments initiative and Recycle and Blue KU.
'RESPONSIBLE REFRESH-
MENTS'
This week, several local bars and restaurants will receive plastic wristbands inscribed with the Student Senate and Responsible Refreshments logos.
Bar-goers who identify themselves as designated drivers will be given these wristbands, which are tickets to receive free food, nonalcoholic beverages and/or cover from the venue.
The initiative is a result of a partnership between Senate, the Jayhawk Buddy System and the participating venues throughout Lawrence.
Woodard said a lot of the most-frequented bars in town are part of the initiative. Participating venues include: the Hawk, the Wheel, Tonic, the Ranch, the Yacht Club, Johnny's Tavern, Louise's West, the Cave and Tapas.
Edited by Joanna Hlavacek
"We wanted to make sure we provided some resource besides Saferide and Safebus." Bolton said. "Those are obviously key resources for safety on campus, but this gives students another route, too."
ELECTION
Two forms of ID needed for some students at polls
CAITLIN DOORNBAS
cdoornbas@kansan.com
For some students, it may be easier to get into a bar underage than it was to vote on Election Day.
After Kansas joined the 33 states in the nation to pass voter ID laws, senior Vanessa Phillips, from Wichita, remembered her driver's license when she showed up to the polls. But when she tried to get her ballot, she was told she didn't look enough like her picture. To prove her identity, Phillips provided a second form of identification.
"I was just so frustrated. I threw down my KU student ID and asked, 'Is this enough?' she said.
There were 221 incidents of voter fraud reported in Kansas from 1997 to 2010, and voter IDs are strictly regulated.
Brittany Bezler, a sophomore from Kansas City, Kan., had a similar problem. A poll worker scrutinized her ID for several minutes until giving Bezler her ballot, but after she cast her vote, the poll worker asked to look at her ID once more.
It is illegal to intentionally vote under a false identification. The 2011 Kansas voting law, which requires registered voters to show photographic identification, aims to combat voter fraud. Critics of the law claim it disenfranchises certain groups of voters. Attorney Rich Benson, who helped address reports of possible voter suppression on Election Day, said young voters are likely to be hurt by the law.
"It made me feel like a criminal. Everyone else passed right through the line, and I was held up," said Bezler. "I'm 20 years old. Why would I lie to vote?"
油
Even though she was inconvenienced, Bezler said she is still glad she got the chance to vote.
"It was my first presidential election," she said. "Nothing can take that feeling away."
Edited by Allison Kohn