Scott has been a vocal advocate that Florida universities focus on turning out STEM degrees, as part of Scott’s effort to create jobs.

USF President Judy Genshaft sent Scott an email on Wednesday thanking Scott for the opportunity to brainstorm about some potential challenges Scott could issue to Perry related to STEM.

“We focused on challenges that could yield relatively quick results in producing new products, jobs, innovations and/or graduates in STEM fields,” Genshaft wrote.

One of the potential prizes includes: having the losing Governor host and pay for a steak cookout with his state’s beef on the other school’s campus, for the winning school’s students to enjoy.

Based on the emails KnightNews.com obtained, the challenges are still in a draft phase and it doesn’t appear any formal challenges have been issued. Genshaft copied Scott’s Chief of Staff, Steve MacNamara, who forwarded the ideas on to other people to further discuss.

It’s unclear if any other universities besides USF are giving Scott ideas for potential challenges. KnightNews.com will work to find out if UCF is also being considered for potential competitions and challenges with Texas. Check back to KnightNews.com to see if any of the ideas become official challenges.

Below are the draft ideas Genshaft submitted to Scott:

Ideas for a University of South Florida vs. University of Texas STEM Challenge

1)   USF Bulls vs. UT Longhorns New STEM Business Challenge

Challenge Summary: Students at USF and UT would compete to start a new STEM business or launch a new STEM product.  Individual or groups of students at each school would be expected to develop a new business or product idea in the STEM field.  Each school would locally choose its best three ideas and those students would be expected to present their new company or product idea to a panel of Fortune 500 and/or Venture Capitalists chosen by Governor Scott and Governor Perry.  The panel would determine the winner based on its likelihood of being commercialized and creating jobs.  All viable contest entries would be expected to be patented and put into production or launched as new companies.

Possible Prize/Bet: In the spirit of promoting the “Bulls vs. Longhorns” and promoting Florida and Texas agriculture, the losing Governor would host and pay for a steak cookout with their state’s beef on the other school’s campus for the winning school’s students to enjoy.

2)   Promoting STEM-M Challenge (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Medicine)

Challenge Summary: To promote the ever-increasing need to marry STEM with healthcare/medicine, USF and UT undergraduate students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fields would compete to develop an innovation or idea that would solve a healthcare problem.  A panel of medical experts equally divided among the two universities would judge the quality of the idea based on impact, practicality and cost, and then the top five entries would present and compete in person.  The presentation/competition would occur in Texas or Florida based on whichever school had the most students enter the competition.

Possible Prize/Bet: The contest winner would get to meet both Governors and the losing Governor would spend a day wearing the shirt of the winning school.  That photograph would be sent to the winning school to display with their other trophies.
 
3)   Increasing the STEM Workforce Challenge

Challenge Summary: USF and UT would compete to develop a method to deliver STEM courses and degree programs for people not currently enrolled in the university, such as people already in the workforce without bachelor’s degrees or people who already have bachelor’s degrees but in non-STEM fields.  The contest would be to develop easy and affordable ways of presenting the material, including online and/or evenings with the goal of increasing enrollment and degree production in STEM fields.  The winner would be determined based on how many new people are enrolled in those courses over a set period of time.

Possible Prize/Bet:  The winning university would have a group of representative faculty and students treated to a dinner at the other state’s Governor’s Mansion.

See the full email from Genshaft to Scott by clicking next page, below.

Among the objectives of the task force are to make recommendations to Scott on how the state universities can improve transparency, accountability and achieve a greater efficiency with reduced duplication of services.

“The Task Force shall, no later than November 15, 2012, provide a written report to the Governor, the Senate President, and the Speaker of the House detailing assessments and recommendations consistent with the responsibilities above,” according to Scott’s executive order.

Scott recently vetoed a bill which would have allowed Florida State University and the University of Florida to raise tuition to unprecedented levels. Scott’s office has told KnightNews.com in the past that instead of raising tuition, the governor wants universities to tighten belts like Florida families have been forced to do in the tough economic times.

At the University of Central Florida, students have recently complained about spending decisions after KnightNews.com reported that UCF administrators attended a lavish red carpet party thrown by the Student Government Association in its own honor.

Student Money Spent on Red Carpet Event

Students were outraged when they read how KnightNews.com learned the lavish event cost between $8,000 to $10,000.

“Wish I could shrug off 8 to 10 grand as if it was nothing. SGA should just hold a bonfire where they burn 10 grand and invite the whole student body to watch. At least then we could actually attend the event where our money is wasted,” student Bryan Maune posted on KnightNews.com’s Facebook page.

The controversial spending of student fees comes as university leaders argue they can’t afford state budget cuts and insist tuition increases are necessary.

When talk of the cuts were hot in Tallahassee, UCF told KnightNews.com it has already cut back — and the Legislature keeps the cuts coming anyway.

“UCF’s state budget now has been cut about $150 million during the past five years,” UCF spokesman Grant Heston told KnightNews.com in March.

Check back to KnightNews.com for updates on the new task force.

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Last Monday, the Student Union’s Pegasus Ballroom was reserved for an annual event funded by SGA called The Passing of the Gavel.

Every year SGA holds this event, essentially in its own honor, mainly to praise the current student body president’s administration and to formally hand off it’s powers to the newly elected representatives. Speeches were given and lavish awards and plaques were handed out.

The event planners went all out this year, providing an extravagant four-course meal complete with appetizers, spring salad, main course and cheesecake for dessert. Also, professional DJs and photographers were hired. In fact, guests enjoyed having their portraits taken on the red carpet in the hallway.

According to an SGA senator, the party was accountable for an estimated $8,000 to $10,000 of student dollars. This may be troubling to some, especially when tuition costs are on the rise here at UCF.

However, SGA senators don’t seem to think there is much of a problem with the spending, and enjoyed the ceremony. The same senator from above stated, “I make sure I get the most out of our budget. Sure, I’d like to see the money spent elsewhere, but the money spent on this party is really only a small fraction of SGA’s funding.”

Is this traditional UCF event too expensive for its purposes? You decide, and check back to Knightnews.com for updates on SGA spending.

Fernando Gonzales, who filed the violation, contended that because Whatley’s campaign handed out meal tickets to students after they voted at his voting station — which were then redeemed at an adjacent giant truck serving catered Wackadoo’s barbecue – the campaign “bestowed or promised” a “prize, reward, gift, or favor” to students “with a view to influence the action of another to vote, not vote, or vote for or against a particular candidate/ticket and/or any other item on the ballot, in any way” — an action prohibited by UCF election statutes.

But the elections commission disagreed, voting down the election violation submitted by Gonzales by a vote of 0-8.

During the hearing, Whatley’s side denied they violated statutes, arguing the main point of the tickets was simply to track the amount of voters. Gonzales also showed video of a KnightNews.com interview with Whatley’s Vice Presidential candidate, Rachel Brill, where she said the food was there to motivate students to vote as part of his evidence.

KnightNews.com doesn’t know who paid for the giant Wackadoo’s truck full of food, because UCF administrators allow SGA candidates to keep their campaign spending records secret. Florida State University, on the other hand, requires disclosure of campaign finance — a standard practice at elections of all levels across the country.

SGA does thousands of dollars in business with Wackadoo’s during the year.

Check back later for video from today’s hearing.

“It’s definitely you know because of all of the supporters that came out. It’s just a very humbling experience. We’re just very grateful for this opportunity,” said Whatley afterward on camera.

His running mate was equally as excited and more than ready to get down to the business of fulfilling the heavy order of their campaign promises.

“…just a plan of action, and you know we’re gonna accomplish everything and then some,” said Brill.

She went on to say, “Throughout the campaigns we took people’s visions on our boards and we just want to make sure that we incorporate that into what we want to do.”

At the pronouncement of the winners, which took place outside the Union on the soundstage beside Smoothie King, the crowd burst into raucous screams. People jumped. People laughed. People cried.

Whatley was even picked up and crowd surfed over the heads of his multitude of supporters as they screamed his name in excitement. It was deafening to hear the chorus of chants as “Cortez!” and “Rachel!”were intermittently and sometimes simultaneously yelled from one end of the crowd to the next.

Yet, along with the tears of triumph, there were also tears of discontent. The opposing campaign stood off to the side as an odd juxtaposition to the celebrations.

As Cortez-Rachel supporters lifted off into the air, King-Katz supporters seemed to go in the opposite direction. In fact, Presidential candidate Anthony King became so overcome with emotion that he sank to the ground and had to be comforted by his campaign supporters.

In an effort to offer additional solace and comfort, Whatley approached him and bent down to speak with him briefly before leaving King and his fans to heal together. That quiet moment in midst of loud fanfare represented both the zenith as well as the nadir of what these elections mean to the student body.

“It was a relief that I didn’t let anyone down. It was a huge relief,” said Whatley when asked what winning the election felt like, “I was honestly, at that point, just thinking how great it was
to have all our supporters there, how great it was to have all our friends there.”

So Close

See more photos on the next page

Replay video:

Check back for updates after the election, including reaction and the exact vote counts. Then, stay tuned to KnightNews.com as we find out what happens in the coming days with the Elections Violations submitted for alleged bribery in the food for votes controversy.

This afternoon, an election violation was submitted against the Cortez/Rachel Campaign for alleged bribery.

According to the violation, submitted by Fernando Gonzales, the Cortez/Rachel campaign required students to vote before getting any of the food offered. The SGA election rules state that campaigns must give the food out, for free, to any student whether they vote or not, according to the violation submission.

Both campaigns have been giving out food from places like Dominos, Tenders, and Wackadoo’s during campaigning, however, Gonzales honed in on the process of Wackadoos being distributed by the Cortez/Rachel campaign.

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“Even more troubling was how institutionalized the vote for food system was in their campaign,” the violation paperwork states. “Again the caveat was that students have to vote in order to receive food, but this time to ensure students complied with the request, they gave out tickets to every student that voted at their station. Without a ticket, students were prohibited from receiving food from Wackadoos.”

KnightNews.com received a statement from Supervisor of Elections Hannah Fraher about the situation.

“The Election Commission follows all processes in regards to violation hearings that are outlined in statutes,” Fraher said. “All violation hearings are open to the public and we will make sure to post the information pertaining to them on our Elections bulletin board once they are scheduled.”

KnightNews.com has received reports from sources close to the situation that a hearing may be scheduled on April 6 to discuss the case.

Keep checking back for updates regarding this matter.

View the submitted documents below for a more detailed description of the accused matter:

Campaigns began early this morning and will continue into the night as supporters rally for votes. Both campaigns have a range of free, yes FREE, food from places like Tenders and Wackadoos.

We stopped outside the Student Union this afternoon to see how elections were going:

Voting continues until Wednesday afternoon and the winner will be announced around 5 p.m. that day.

Keep checking back for more information about campaigns and to see who will win the election.

While Whatley and Brill requested no media be present at their event, King and Katz welcomed the media along with nearly 200 supporters.

KnightNews.com went to the King/Katz rally, check out the video below:

Voting begins Monday morning on March 26, and ends Wednesday. Students can vote at my.ucf.edu.

The eager, yet nervous, duo had their plans set and were ready to begin a brand new year, managing nearly 58,000 students at UCF.

Now, nine months later, we sat down with the pair again to take a look at how things went from start to finish.

Watch our interview with Matt McCann and Adam Brock below:

Click Here to watch the initial interview with McCann and Brock