<p>please encourage your students to vote today</p>
<p>The SGA controls a lot of money and can help shape student life for better or worse. Too often at UA, as other other larges schools, only a select group of students vote, and the rest then wonder why their vision of student life is not implemented.</p>
<p>SGA ELECTIONS - Vote on-line at mybama.ua.edu
Polls open: 7:00 am - 7:00 pm </p>
<p>Thursday, March 10 Run-off (if necessary) via voting on mybama.ua.edu</p>
<p>Please vote for The Machine candidates. They are almost always the best choices.</p>
<p>I know Atlanta agrees with me on this :-)</p>
<p>Well, if you want to vote for people who have been selected by an all white group of select fraternity and sorority members, then go right ahead, and vote “Machine”. Unfortunately, Theta Nu Epsilon is not benign. Of course, if students buy into the myth that a vote does not matter, then they have nothing to complain about.</p>
<p>Well, although my vote probably didn’t account for much, I voted for Nancy Hogan. (She’s the independent candidate, as if the fact that she’s a woman & head of the Black Student Union didn’t indicate that) She doesn’t really have a snowball’s chance, but it was worth a vote.</p>
<p>If you like a (dark, cynical) laugh, though:
[The</a> Machine (TheUAMachine) on Twitter](<a href=“http://twitter.com/TheUAMachine]The”>http://twitter.com/TheUAMachine)</p>
<p>Not sure why you think that way given that Kendra Key came very close to defeating the machine candidate two years ago.</p>
<p>For an independent candidate to a healthy chance of beating the Machine candidate, they have to have an extremely well-organized campaign, good funding ($5k-10, if not more- Cochran’s totals are pushing 25) and a significant amount of time to establish themselves on campus. While Hogan’s organization is decent and their ground game (facebook, fliers, etc) is pretty good, the atmosphere on campus is too subdued, partially due to this year’s ban on chalking and stickers. She has campaigned well, and, in the last debate, effectively made Cochran’s Machine involvement into an issue, but I still don’t believe she’ll win.</p>
<p>Oh, and, for for what it’s worth, the Elections Board leaks information like a sieve. If Cochran were in any danger, there’d be a quick mobilization like the final hours of the Key election.</p>
<p>I had heard today there was chalking though…is that correct?</p>
<p>Doubt it. The chalking wouldn’t last more than a few minutes, given that it’s been raining all day.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t put it past the GDI’s to chalk even though it was banned. They skirt the rules just as much if not more than the Greeks. It’s just the commie rag known as the Crimson White doesn’t report their infractions. </p>
<p>Anyone take the bait? I’m always up for a good SGA (Machine - GDI) argument :-)</p>
<p>Nah, I’ll sit this one out- the results are already trickling in, anyhow.</p>
<p>According to the Crimson White twitter feed.</p>
<p>UNOFFICIAL results of the 2011 SGA Presidential Election:
Grant Cochran 5,288
Coresa Nancy Hogan 3,862 </p>
<p>In my best John Sterling voice, Ballgame over! Machine wins!! Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Machine Wins!! :-)</p>
<p>Not sure if your elation is an act. I wouldn’t expect you to want the non machine candidate to win, but why exactly, are you elated if you are? Why is it so wonderful that a select group of people who have traditionally had disproportionate influence on campus, win again? IF you think the “Machine” is so great, why don’t you ask Joey Visseli’s family how they felt when their family pizza business was boycotted after he dared to run against the machine, and almost win? Or you could ask Gov. Bob Riley’s daughter, how she felt, after being attacked in her home, after she dared go outside of the Machine to run for SGA president? Or you could ask me how I felt when I saw freshman pledge goons tearing down posters I had placed on campus. </p>
<p>I don’t have a problem with inordinate Greek influence on campus politics, but given that not everyone can afford to be in a Frat or Sorority, or does not have the right color to be in the Machine, then would it really hurt for them to try to be a little more inclusive? The fact that chalking was banned is emblamatic of the limits placed on the ability of "GDI"s to have a decent chance. </p>
<p>I honestly dont see how you can think that the Machine is good for UA’s image, or its student life. It is without a doubt, the worst thing about our beloved university.</p>
<p>lol, we’ve been through this before. And while I am happy that the machine backed candidate won, my post was made strictly to get this very reaction from you and others with similar anti-greek (machine) feelings.</p>
<p>Bama Bino going out of business had more to do with an inferior product and new competition from Dominos & Pizza Hut then it did from the greek boycott. Regardless I see nothing wrong with greeks supporting businesses that support them. </p>
<p>For example, If my business relies on the support of Republicans I’d have to be an idiot to run against them as a Democrat. Business 101 teaches you not to **** off your best customers.</p>
<p>Minda Riley was FOS. I don’t believe those attacks happened and overwhelming proof showed she was a drama queen and her story was full of holes.</p>
<p>The Machine is a political group no different than any other. They organize to support candidates that best represent their interests. How is that any different than women’s groups, minority groups, or any other group that endorses a particular candidate?</p>
<p>Greeks make up 20% of the campus and The Machine doesn’t even include all greeks. If an independent candidate can’t drum up enough support or interest to win then that’s their fault.</p>
<p>The Machine’s disproportionate influence is in direct correlation to their disproportionate interest in campus politics. Don’t be mad at The Machine. Be mad at the apathy shown by the rest of the student body.</p>
<p>While side-stepping the above arguments, a 57/43 split is a hell of a lot better than last year, particularly given the thrown-together/half-a$$ed nature of Hogan’s campaign. Next year should truly be a challenge for the Machine, given who’ll be running.</p>
<p>Everyone knew the Machine candidate was going to win, though Hogan put up a decent fight, as the numbers indicate. (Kansasdemocrat is right. If there were any threat of Cochran losing, we would have a repeat of the 9th inning save that happened during the Key election). </p>
<p>I actually enjoyed Hogan’s speech on her platform the several times I listened to her, as opposed to Cochran whom I felt did not have a solid plan on how to improve campus life. I personally enjoyed the subdued campaigning this year. But what mattered most to me was the engineering senate race. I wore my chosen senate candidate’s vote button proudly and campaigned for him, and he won!!!</p>
<p>NJ, I think the fact that the even more conservative UA administration at the time (early to mid 90s) shut down the SGA for a couple of years after the Riley incident and other “irregularities” occurred, shows the dirtiness of the “Machine”. It also undercuts your attempts to sweep its true nature under the rug. The Machine is like Skull and Bones. Nothing to be proud of. </p>
<p>You act as though the Machine is necessary to protect these poor Greek students whose stately homes would surely be taken away were it not for the Machine. I don’t think UGA has a Machine, and their Greek students seem to be thriving just as much as the ones at UA. </p>
<p>The ONLY point to the Machine is to protect the ability of white students who can afford to be in a Frat or a Sorority, to gain political power, and pad their resumes. I am sure there have been some good Machine SGA presidents, but I am also sure that many of the defeated non Machine candidates would have been good as well, and would have offered a perspective too often missing in UA student govt. </p>
<p>Bama Bino was excellent pizza, as shown by the fact that the Frats and Sororities consumed it with gusto, till Mr. Viselli’s son had the audacity to challenge their right to exclude others from power. </p>
<p>By the way, the Machine includes independents? That is news to me. Not sure how you can say that. Kinda defeats the purpose, unless of course, there are only token numbers.</p>
<p>Someone mentioned that the competition should be more stiff next year. Who is planning to run against the Machine next year that will make the race more competitive? Im curious.</p>
<p>^
That’s a conversation for next year, ha.
FWIW, though, the Machine candidate is all but certain to be David Wilson.</p>
<p>I never said The Machine included independents. What I said was that it didn’t include all greeks. There are some fraternities & sororities (yes some white ones) deemed unfit for Machine representation. </p>
<p>Bama Bino’s was popular because it was CHEAP (>5 for a large pie) and because Dominos and others hadn’t made it to campus yet. Sure it was Joey’s right to run for office. And it was the greeks right to take their business elsewhere. That is the epitome of politics. </p>
<p>I’d call Roger Sayers a lot of things but conservative isn’t one of them. Minda Riley was a loon. Those physical attacks never happened and everyone knew it. Of course the Crimson White was too busy breaking into fraternity houses trying to uncover Machine meetings to actually report the facts. </p>
<p>Because someone may be rich & white they don’t deserve the right to organize and endorse a candidate? Is being rich or white something to be ashamed of now?</p>
<p>Block voting is done on every level all over the country. Unions, special interest groups, women & minority organizations all endorse a candidate and urge their members to vote en masse for their chosen candidate. But since The Machine is viewed as a rich, white group it’s now somehow a vile practice.</p>
<p>I think your words speak for themselves NJ! That underrepresented, underprivileged Greek community sure does need to vote in bloc, enforced by intense social pressure, else the UA would tear down those gorgeous homes, rush would be cancelled, etc. I bet the Machine even watches videos of Gandhi and MLK for inspiration in fighting against the oppression they would otherwise face from the entire student body and administration at UA. </p>
<p>I will say it again, if the UA administration had to shut down the SGA for a couple of years back in the early to mid nineties, we can know that a whole lot of shenanigans had to have occurred. There were far too many Greek alums on the UA Board and in the UA administration for the shutdown to have occurred without a whole lot of evidence to call for it. The shutdown came after several years of negative spotlight on the Machine. </p>
<p>The Machine is the kind of thing that turns some off to our university. My opposition to it is not about an animus against the Greek system, but about dislike of secretive groups that seek to give power to a select few who are often not very representative of the larger campus. But I also criticize the UA student body for being so apathetic about campus politics, though things like chalking banning aren’t helpful for encouraging voting.</p>