THE MEREDITH HERALD o @meredithherald @ @meredith_herald #harktheherald meredithherald.com February 19, 2020 Election Results Take Meredith by Surprise By Katelyn Wiszowaty, Staff Writer This year’s Meredith Col lege elections stirred excitement and mixed feelings all around campus. While many candidates were run ning unopposed, others had fierce competitors, and the outcomes were unpredictable. A few of the biggest winners include Naomi Hill as SGA President, Lindsey Lewis as the Class of 202i’s President and Taryn McKen- rick and Madison Parker as the Class of 2022’s Cornhuskin’ Co-Chairs. Voter turnout is an important topic of discussion this year. Accord ing to Emma Lampe, Elections Board Chair, voter turnout was higher this year than last. Lampe credits this to the implementation of interactive re minders about voting across campus and the ballot’s referendum. What Lampe hopes will be different next year is the voter turnout for contested races, which she says were strangely lower than for uncontested races. It’s important that students be sure to vote in all races that are relevant to them, and democracy works best with active citizens, she says. Lampe also addressed the rumors about con testants’ campaign materials being . tampered with, saying that it was “not quite tampering, but some things were being moved and there was no evidence who had done it.” Lampe wants students to know that winning an election does not mean they will not face consequences for breaking rules, and there is now a system in place to deal with these types of situ ations in the future. One of the biggest contested races Meredith students saw this year was Naomi Hill and Lexie Bennett, running for the crucial position of SGA President. Since Hill is currently studying abroad, Bennett had the advantage of on-campus campaign ing, so Hill’s win was somewhat of a surprise. Hill is extremely excited about her big win and comments, “It was so wonderful that 1 could run from being abroad and it shows the community at Meredith is always with you. I’m so thankful for the op portunity to be in this position and serve Meredith.” Hill added, “It was such an honor to run against Lexie,” and she hopes they can work togeth er honor the things that Lexie wanted to accomplish. As SGA President, Hill says she “wants to make sure things are inclusive and people feel both ac cepted and encouraged.” Newly elected 2022 Corn huskin’ Co-Chairs McKenrick and Parker won against their ffeshman- our class is trusting us with this task." Newly elected 2021 Class President Lindsey Lewis will succeed incum bent Ashlynn Davis. Lewis and Davis both declined to comment. Even though the official elec tions are over, there are still many positions open that need filling. As Elections Board Chair, Emma Lampe wants to strongly stress this to stu dents who may be interested in hold ing a leadership position. A few of the campus-wide positions that still need to be filled are vice president, treasurer/SAF chair, secretary and honor council chair. There are also several class positions that need to be filled. The complete list of positions can be found in Article I, Section 4.1 of the bylaws of the SGA Constitu tion. Emma Lampe wants to remind you that “running is not as scary as you think and can be a very positive experience!” 2022 Cornhuskin' Class Co-Chair candidates (left to right: Taryn McKenrick, Olivia Slack, Jeanine Carryl, Madison Sholar, Madison Parker). Image courtesy of Carryl. Black HERstory Month By Milin Santizo-Escobar, Contributing Writer day from 8-9 p.m. in SMB 118. On Feb. 20, a panel will be held about protecting Black women from 7-8:30 p.m. Students will learn how to rec ognize the struggles of Black women and how to be an advocate for Black The Black Student Union (BSU) is hosting a series of events and seminars in February for Black His tory Month. Black History Month is an annual celebration of the achieve ments and contributions achieved by African Americans in the U.S. and the rest of the world. To better highlight the achievements of Black women, BSU coined February Black HERstory Month. Tyler Pharr, the President of Meredith College BSU, says, “Histori cally, Black women are seldom men tioned or celebrated, so we wanted to embrace the Black female experience and give ourselves the flowers we deserve. We hope that the MC community will join us this month.” BSU meetings are held every Thurs- women in their community. A Colorism Pillow Talk will be presented on Thursday, Feb. 27 from 7-8:30 pm in SMB 118: “What is Colorism and how does it affect you?” There will be a small presenta tion about what it is and how society is affected by it. For those who don’t know, colorism is “differential treat ment based "We encourage people of all back- on skin grounds to fellowship with us and color,” ac- to understand that Black women cording to are important to celebrate during dictionary. Black History Month," says Pharr. “™- “Personally, colorism is trash, and as a darker-skinned Black woman, my journey to self-love was longer because of it. Colorism is insti tutionally supported and engrained in all aspects of society, and frankly, it sucks,” says Pharr. She hopes that attendees can learn about colorism and how to call it out when they see it. “It is important to talk about it and be aware of how we are affected and foster it. Though it will be a hard con versation, we all have implicit biases involving colorism,” said Pharr. As a conclusion for Black History Month, the BSU is collaborating with the Residence Housing Association (RHA) to host a “Social for the Soul” event, which will be a “Breakfast and Chill” celebration in BDH with spe cial guests and performances. This will take place Friday, Feb. 28 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Southern cuisines will be served, such as chicken and waffles and shrimp and grits. There is a $2 entrance fee for all who wish to attend. “We have all been touched by Inside This Issue NEWS Democratic Primaries CSA Day Abstracts MAB-gic New on the Block: MCDC A&E Julius Caesar Review Dad Jokes Grounded OPINION Women Can Be Abusers, Too Coronavirus and Modern Racism Flora [fern] Fauna Review NCARH Passes New Legislation By Molly Perry, Staff Writer The North Carolina Associa tion of Residence Halls (NCARH) recently passed two new legislations that promote a more inclusive envi ronment. The first legislation calls for all former and future legislations to use they/them pronouns instead of s/ he pronouns. According to NCARH Chair Jancie Santiago, this legislation allows “everyone to feel included and accepted in the NCARH community.” The second legislation allows schools from South Carolina to be members of NCARH in addition to North Carolina schools. Jancie says that South Carolina schools will benefit from this legislation “because their statewide conference culminated two years ago,” and their membership invites them to “create new connec tions with NC institutions” at North Carolina’s own conference. Jancie explains, “NCARH inspires student leadership to grow, he inclusive and be accepting towards people’s needs in the campus com munity while communicating with other schools to improve each institu tion’s RHA.” someone in RHA, and we are super excited to work with them for this event. We hope that the people who know about this event don't just see it as a ‘black event.’ That is usually the perception when BSU has publicly sponsored events. This is our Black HERstory Month closeout event and we want everyone to come and cel ebrate what BSU and Black culture represent,” said Pharr. To start Black History Month, a talk session about seasonal de pression was occured on Feb. 6 with Continued on page 2...

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