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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 2015)
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015 I SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 I © 2015 STUDENT MEDIA I ©THEBATTONLINE Election results spark controversy SBP-elect faces alleged violations Moped campaign video the subject of J-Court appeal By Mark Dore 1^, A campaign video released by ^ Student Body President-elect Jo seph Benigno contained major viola tions of election regulations, an SGA Judicial Court appeal alleges. The appeal, filed on behalf of Mi chael Murtha, who finished second to Benigno in last week’s election by a 52-48 split, references a video entitled “Go(Pro) With Joe,” in which Be nigno rides a moped around College Station and interacts with campaign staff. Among the 15 alleged violations are six that violate state law — “major violations,” as designated by election rules — including a failure to stop at a stop sign, operating a motorcycle without a helmet under the age of 21, driving a motorcycle on a side walk and driving on the left side of the roadway in a no-passing zone. BENIGNO ON PG. 2 Appeal asks for Yell Leader vote recount By Trey Reeves "W' "TT" ote tallies in the Se- % / nior Yell Leader % / elections have been W called into question following a close race that ended in the election of all but one 5 For Yell candidate. According to the reported results, Steven Lanz was the top overall vote-getter, garnering 3,860 votes to become the first Yell Leader who is not a mem ber of the Corps of Cadets since 2012. Four cadets — juniors Will Alders and Chris Wilder and seniors Kyle Cook and Zach Lawrence — were also elected. Incumbent cadet Ben Ritchie, however, was not. A Judicial Court case filed by finance junior Gregory Lanier states that the reported numbers of 11,217 ballots cast and 11,369 votes counted are too similar, YELL LEADER ON PG. 2 Shelby Knowles — THE BATTALION 4* Finance junior Joseph Benigno was elected student body president for the 2015- 2016 school year with 52 percent of the vote. Class of 2018 president fights disqualification O'Rourke files appeal regarding null-expenditure By Trey Reeves A hotly contested election season ^ did not end when the polls closed Friday afternoon. Sam O’Rourke, the incumbent president of the Class of 2018, was dis qualified from the race after not filing an expense report. O’Rourke has filed an appeal with the Student Govern ment Association’s Judicial Court in regards to his disqualification follow ing a resounding victory over chal lenger Beni Kashala. O’Rourke, who won 78 percent of the vote, said his campaign did not spend any money, but he was disquali fied for not turning in an expense report. O’Rourke said this changes the required documentation from an expense report to a null-expenditure statement, of which the penalties an omission are far less explicitly out lined. O’ROURKE ON PG. 4 ELECTIONS CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY SPRING 2015 WINNERS Student Body President Joseph Benigno Senior Yell Leaders Steven Lanz Kyle Cook Zachary Lawrence Junior Yell Leaders Will Alders Chris Wilder Class of 2016 President Matt Hidalgo Class of 2016 Class Agent Team Anthony J. Valdez, Aubre Dean, Mary Crimmins, Randall Oliver, Connor Yancy Class of 2017 President Claire Wimberly Class of 2018 President Beni Kashala RHA President Jenna McCarty RHA Executive Vice President Bryan McBride Elected students lose positions due to absent expense reports Disqualified candidates blame poor communication By Lindsey Gawlik The Spring 2015 election saw the dis qualification of 18 candidates, 10 of whom had amassed enough votes to win their positions. Many of the disqualified candidates lost their campaigns because they failed to file an expense report. Several argue their disquali fications are unwarranted because they did not spend any money on their campaigns, and say it wasn’t made clear that an expendi ture report was required in such a situation. Emma Douglas, Student Government Association election commissioner and business honors sophomore, said there are a few ways a candidate can be disqualified from elections, namely by not showing up to the mandatory candidate meeting or by not turning in an accurate expense report. Douglas said these disquali fication standards are listed in the rules for candidates. “We’re just wanting to make sure the elections are run in the most fair way pos sible,” Douglas said. “I’m more than open to any questions or suggestions as to how we can make that happen. I’m fine with these appeal cases.” Paul Dutton, a computer engineering ju nior who ran for an off-campus residence senate seat, was disqualified for not turn ing in an expense report. Dutton said the requirement to turn in a null report when a candidate does not spend any money is useless but doesn’t plan to appeal the dis qualification. FULL STORY AT THEBATT.COM 6,930 fi rs t rounc j vo t es were cas t f or disqualified candidates in the 2015 election. The GREEN bar represents the number of candidates in various spring SGA elections who would have won their respective races if they weren't disqualified. The BLUE bar represents the number of candidates who were disqualified but would have lost anyway. li 2015 ii 2014 This information comes from the spring election results listed by the SGA Election Commission. NONE 2013 2012 Award ceremony honors tech strides in film making Academy recognizes 'scientists' in industry By Srinivas Marshal While most of the Oscar season’s focus fell on Sun day’s events, a lesser-known cer emony two weeks ago awarded those who pushed filmmaking technology beyond its frontiers. The Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards were given out Feb. 7 to highlight the in dividuals who develop the tech nology that much of cinema re lies upon. Tim McLaughlin, head of the department of visualization at Texas A&M, previously worked at Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic. McLaughlin said the Oscars remind watchers of the interplay between technology such as VFX, or visual effects, and cinema. “There’s a reason they’re called the Academy for mo tion picture art and ‘sciences,’” McLaughlin said. “On the one hand you have the movie ‘Bird- man’ that looks like it was shot in one single take, made possible by VFX, and then you have the Avengers movies. So there’s a spectrum of movies that lie be tween the ones' that use VFX to aid storytelling and the ones whose stories are pretty much based on VFX entirely.” From collaborative efforts be tween scientists and filmmakers that led to the discovery of the most accurate black hole mod el to date in “Interstellar,” to ground-breaking technological advancements in film-projection such as IMAX, Hollywood has never been shy to reach out to tech wizards. “There are hundreds of sci entists and engineers at major movie studios today [who] base their work on the research car ried out of universities such as ours, and come up with the most economical software or gadget that meets their requirement,” McLaughlin said. Throughout cinema history, movies have often sparked the interest of scientists and engi neers to copy the technologies showcased on screen. The hov- erboards and self-tying shoelaces from the “Back to the Future” series continue to inspire inven tors. A kickstarter project raised AWARDS ON PG. 3 Aimee Breaux — THE BATTALION