Nation waits for outcome of election
Opinions vary on media coverage, delayed result
By Sarah McClellan
skiff staff
Ben Ludington went to bed Tuesday night thinking George W. Bush was the 43rd president of the United States.
“I was really surprised when I woke up and the radio was saying they had to recount the votes,” said Ludington, a sophomore engineering major. “When I went to bed around 1 a.m., I thought Florida was going to Bush.”
Many news stations reported Vice President Al Gore had won Florida about 7 p.m. Tuesday, but reported two hours later that the state’s standing was too close to call. People who stayed up after 2 a.m. to watch the results, however, went to bed thinking the Texas governor had won the election. A vote recount was called after Bush’s margin of victory was less than one-half of 1 percent, or 1,200 votes out of the 6 million cast.
Ralph Carter, a political science professor, was also surprised.
“I’m just amazed by it all,” Carter said. “This has never happened in my lifetime.”
With Bush holding 246 electoral college votes and Gore holding 260, Florida’s 25 electoral votes will decide the winner of the election.
“Apparently, it was going to be close in Florida anyway — we anticipated that,” Carter said. “But it’s so close that it’s triggered an automatic recount. That’s a law in Florida.”
Danielle Davis, a junior education major, thinks the media made a mistake in reporting the results too soon.
“As far as the media, they’re pressured because people want to know what’s going on,” Davis said. “But they should wait longer to say anything.”
Ryan Brown, a freshman radio-TV-film major, said, “I am glad that there has been a recount with all the reported mishaps in Florida and the fact that Bush won the state by only 1,200 votes.”
Kelsey Clark, a freshman premajor, said the news stations were too focused
on getting immediate results.
“It shows how the media is quick to judge so they can show a news
story,” Clark said.
Lance Kelly, a sophomore psychology major, went to bed later than usual, disappointed he didn’t know who the new president was yet.
“I was a little upset it wasn’t over,” he said. “I went to bed when Florida was still undecided.”
Kelly said he hopes the chaos ends up with Gore winning Florida and the election because he agrees with Gore’s education policies.
Brown also said he hopes the close race comes down to a Democrat victory.
“Four Supreme Court justices are leaving, which means the next president will be able to choose them,” Brown said. “If Bush is to win then we will have four conservative justices. This could be bad to our ever changing future. Most students are voting Bush without looking into what he really supports. Many students will be affected whether by abortion policies or by other very conservative issues.”
Brown also said he thinks students will benefit if Gore wins because their parents will receive a larger tax cut for children in college.
However, the 18 to 25 age group will be affected positively if Bush wins the presidency, Ludington said.
“Most people in the 18 to 25 age range fall into the lower end of the tax bracket,” he said. “Bush’s plan has a bigger tax cut for that bracket.”
Carter said one of the attractive points of Bush’s policies is privatization of Social Security.
“If college students are worried about their long-term future,
they might be happy if (Bush) could get those social security changes
he proposed, which will allow some private investments of funds instead
of (most income taxes) going to Social Security,” Carter said. “In
the polls, that resonates well with young voters.”
Ludington said he has confidence in both candidates.
“I think we’d be in good shape either way,” he said. “They’ll both be great leaders, but I don’t think we were the target audience for most of this campaign.”
Sarah McClellan
Web simplified through :cue cat
New technology intended to increase Internet
possibilities
By Chris Gibson
staff reporter
Erin Greening said she doesn’t mind typing in the Web address when looking up something on the Internet. Brooke Hameborg, a spokeswoman for Digital:Convergence, said her company hopes Greening isn’t part of the majority.
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These cues and bar codes can be
found on anything from the latest copies of the Dallas Morning News
to a Coke can.
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Digital:Convergence Corporation is a Dallas based Internet technology
company. Their new product, the :cue cat reader, was designed to simplify access to sites on the Internet.
By using the reader, which is shaped like a cat, a person is able to scan cues or bar codes that in turn link the reader to a certain Web site. These cues and bar codes can be found on anything from the latest copies of the Dallas Morning News to a Coke can.
Greening, a senior computer science major, said she has experimented with the :cue cat but doesn’t really see a use for it right now.
“As a computer science major I like to try all the new gadgets,” she said. “I used (the :cue cat) the first night and showed a few people but I haven’t used it since. It was kind of useless.”
Brooke Hameborg, a spokeswoman for Digital:Convergence, said there are uses for the :cue cat technology on a college campus that go beyond just scanning the newspaper.
“There are endless possibilities for the :cue cat on college campuses,” she said. “Not only could students scan things like compact discs, but cues could be included in textbooks and even on admissions brochures. Some people argue it’s not that hard to type in a Web addresses, but if people could just scan a cue and be linked to a site, it makes that information just that more accessible.”
Junior business major Levi Robinson had never used the :cue cat but agreed to try it out. He said the reader could be helpful, but would probably just get in the way.
“I could see people using it to scan magazine ads, or to find out more about a certain product,” he said. “But who really wants to go to their computer and scan a bar code every time they need more information about something?”
The Dallas Morning News was the first newspaper in the country to add cues to some of their stories. Chris Kelley, project manager for the :cue cat, said the it is meant to give additional information to the newspaper’s existing stories.
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Chris Gibson/STAFF REPORTER
Levi Robinson, a junior business major, scans a product with the :cue cat reader. Officials from Digital:Convergence Corporation are expecting 10 million :cue cats to be distributed by the end of the year. |
“The cues that we place in our paper are meant to supplement our stories and not replace them,” he said. “If newspapers are going to survive in the future, they are going to have to merge with online technology.
eople are using computers more and more and they like the advantages of the RealPlayer, and some of the other graphics that the computer can offer. We are just trying to give them that choice.”
Kelley said the :cue cat could be helpful to college students who have recently begun to get their news online.
Dick Rinewalt, chairman of the computer science department, said there may be a place for the :cue cat in society, but his main concern would be with privacy.
“The problem that I see is you have to register it,” he said. “It’s free, but you have to give up a lot of personal information. This means that every time you use (the Digital:Convergence) it has the ability to track your usage. I don’t like that.”
Digital:Convergence says on its Web site that the :cue cat reader is “the biggest computer innovation since the mouse.”
Greening doesn’t agree. She said that may be overstating their product a little.
“I don’t really think that is the case,” she said. “There are a lot more things (like) CD-ROM’s and DVD players — all of these things are more useful to me.”
Chris Gibson
c.j.gibson@student.tcu.edu
Student not added to SGA ballot
Wood runs for unopposed position of president
By Kristina Iodice
staff reporter
The House Judiciary Board failed to come to a conclusion Wednesday night to decide whether or not to recognize Brian Wood, a junior economics major, as an official Student Government Association presidential candidate.
If Wood isn’t recognized as an official candidate, he won’t be allowed to participate in the SGA election debates scheduled for Friday and in the forum Monday.
Wood currently isn’t recognized as an official candidate because he didn’t turn in an application by the Monday filing deadline.
Wood began campaigning Wednesday as a write-in candidate for the unopposed position of SGA president. He said students need choices when deciding on a SGA president.
Sara Donaldson, the current Vice President of House of Student Representatives, was running unopposed for SGA president before Wood announced his intent to campaign.
If a candidate’s name doesn’t appear on the official ballot, students can vote through a handwritten ballot or online when that option is available, said Brian Becker, Elections and Regulations chairman. The person must still follow the same rules as the other candidates, he said.
Wood said he has been thinking about running for the position of SGA president for a while. He tried calling the SGA offices before the deadline Monday night but was unable to speak with Becker until after the filing deadline, he said. He said not appearing on the ballot will be a major hindrance.
“I’m not going to be afraid to try it,” he said. “Nothing ventured is nothing gained.”
Paper ballots will be accepted at the Student Center Information Desk for write-in candidates and for students encountering problems using the online ballot.
Larry Markley, Director of the Student Center and House adviser, said adding the write-in candidate option online was a long-term project but this situation wasn’t expected. Markley said he is working with the Elections and Regulations Committee to possibly extend the Information Desk hours for the SGA elections Monday.
Donaldson said she wasn’t expecting the election to be easy.
“I was prepared to campaign before I found out I was unopposed,” she said.
Donaldson said it was unfortunate that Wood didn’t submit his official form on time. She worked long and hard to decide if running for president was what she wanted to do, she said.
“The president of the Student Government Association should understand the importance of a deadline,” Donaldson said.
Becker said the decision to extend the deadline is made only if there are no candidates running for a SGA position.
“Any time you can have two candidates running it allows students to actually choose which candidate they prefer,” Becker said.
Wood was on the SGA Dining Services and the Elections and Regulations committees his freshman year. He also served on the Special Events Committee of Programming Council the same year.
Wood said the student body president is a liaison between students and administration and he wants to be a voice for the students. His main focus is to get people involved and make students feel they own student government, he said.
SGA Secretary Jason Cordova said it is healthier for SGA to have no unopposed offices.
“Honestly we’ve never seen a situation where a write-in candidate was prepared to run a serious campaign,” Cordova said.
The positions of vice president of House and vice president of PC were still unopposed as of Wednesday night.
The SGA election primary will be held online at the Student Center Information Desk. Candidates need 50 percent plus one vote to win the election, Becker said. If a run-off election is needed voting will be held Nov. 17, he said.
Kristina Iodice
k.k.iodice@student.tcu.edu
POWs, MIAs remembered
Vigil to be held today
By Elise Rambaud
staff reporter
The aircraft of U.S. Navy Captain Wendell Rivers crashed into a rice paddy in September 1965 in North Vietnam after a bomb exploded inside the plane. Rivers was captured that day and taken as a prisoner of war for seven years.
As a part of Air Force ROTC’s tribute to American prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action, Rivers will speak about his experiences as a POW in Vietnam at 3:30 p.m. today in the Pepsico Performance Hall.
Rivers said it’s important for Americans to realize the price that has been paid for freedom. He said he is happy to relay his firsthand experience of this crucial portion of U.S. history to the TCU community.
Following the speech, AFROTC cadets will march to the flag pole outside of Sadler Hall to raise the POW/MIA flag. Cadets will then stand guard at the flag pole in 15-minute shifts to initiate a 24-hour candlelight vigil. Cadets will light the remembrance candle and the read names of American POWs and MIAs of past armed conflicts at 4:50 p.m.
The tribute was organized by the cadets of the Arnold Air Society, an AFROTC service organization that includes cadets from TCU, University of Texas at Arlington, Dallas Baptist University and Texas Wesleyan University.
POW camp memorabilia will be displayed in a military tent in front of Sadler Hall.
Jennifer Lindsey, a UTA student and commander of Arnold Air Society, said there have been 95,271 American soldiers unaccounted for since WWI.
“A cadet standing guard at the flag pole symbolizes the nation waiting for those missing in action to return home,” Lindsey said.
Honoring soldiers that sacrificed their lives for the nation is a cause that is especially important to Lindsey because many of her family’s friends didn’t return from the Persian Gulf War.
Bryan Lucas, a junior computer science major, volunteered to participate in the vigil.
“These people laid down their lives for their country or were held captive for several years in a POW camp,” Lucas said. “The least I can do is honor them by standing by a flagpole for 15 minutes.”
Lindsey expects members of local and national Air Force associations to attend, as well as several area Junior ROTC detachments.
Elise Rambaud
e.j.rambaud@student.tcu.edu