Enter Brian Tewes, who happened to be granted the special privilege of flaunting the inaugural Stewie head in the student section of last Wednesday’s UCF men’s basketball game against Memphis. The UCF Athletics section has been handing out various “big head” posters of Knights basketball players, as well as cartoon characters and celebrities during basketball games.

The only problem was Tewes and the Stewie head poster were nowhere to be found after the postgame madness.

“I stormed the court like everyone else and took the cut out with me similar to how the other students who were given them did,” said Tewes.  “Afterwards, I didn’t see who gave it to me so I went home with It and hung it on my wall.”

UCF premiered five cut out heads, featuring Stewie, Darth Vader, Justin Bieber, The Most Interesting Man in the World, and Daniel Tosh.  During the circus that followed, collecting the heads was not easy.

“We went through the crowd to collect them and realized that Stewie was missing,” said Assistant Director of Fan Development Samantha Nemeroff.  “We thought it wasn’t going to be found, but by chance, our intern’s friend was taking pictures for Valencia’s newspaper and had taken enough of the crowd for us to spot him.”

Nemeroff and the UCF marketing team decided to make the search for the Stewie head fun by making a themed wanted poster of Tewes with a Wild West flair.  It featured several shots of him throughout the game with the Stewie head and offered a reward for its safe return.

Not even 15 minutes after the pictures were posted, with the help of UCF Nation, the culprit was found.  Dan Antonino, or “Knight Fan Dan”, is a friend of Tewes and spotted the picture of him as soon as it was posted on Facebook.

“I called him as soon as I saw it and posted a link to his Facebook of the picture,” said Antonino.  “Seeking the prize, I went with Brian to return the head and was awarded three t-shirts.”

The cut out heads of celebrities and cartoon characters was inspired by an Indiana Hoosiers basketball game that the UCF marketing team had watched.  The cut out heads are traditionally used to distract the opposing team during free throws and are a way of making the crowd even more raucous.

“Our goal is to have those five heads showcased at every game, but we encourage students to make their own as well,” said Nemeroff.

The marketing team is calling for even more crowd participation with the cut out heads and will look to collect them prior to the games completion to ensure this mishap does not happen again.  As for Tewes, he is happy things have returned to normal as his time as a UCF outlaw was short, but exciting.

“I couldn’t believe they went to such an extent,” said Tewes.  “It was very creative getting the poster out there, and this was definitely one of my best college moments so far.”

UCF will play their first home game since the Memphis thriller Saturday against Southern Miss at 7 p.m., where Stewie and the gang will make their triumphant return.  Hopefully this time he’ll make it home without any trouble.

Eight Republican Presidential Candidates met in Tampa, FL last night in what became a very heated debate.

For the eight contenders, this was sure to be a debate filled with fireworks, and it was. For the CNN Tea Party Debate (second debate in less than a week), this was expected to be a fight between the two front runners, and it didn’t disappoint.

Rick Perry and Mitt Romney showed that this race is about them, and that it is most likely to stay that way throughout the primaries. CNN did a good job with getting the candidates to actually debate each other.

With past debates, moderators would ask the question and the candidate would respond, last night was different. Wolf Blitzer, who was the only moderator of the evening, did a good job allowing the candidates to go back and forth, truly debating with one another.

How did the candidates themselves fare?

Mitt Romney: Governor Romney didn’t have a spectacular night, but he didn’t need to. He came in to the debate polling second behind Rick Perry. During the debate, Romney hit Perry hard on the executive order he signed in Texas which required girls to get the Gardasil Vaccine, which is proven to prevent some forms of the Human Papilloma Virus.

At one point, Romney was forced to defend his mandated health care program in Massachusetts. The other candidates pressed him on the fact that President Obama’s health care reform legislation was modeled somewhat off of the Massachusetts Plan. Romney has to continue doing what he is doing, because for the most part, it is working.

Rick Perry: Rick Perry had the toughest night out of the eight candidates. He was forced to defend his record on just about everything, including the HPV Vaccine, and immigration.
In my opinion, Governor Perry came into the debate the front runner, and he left the debate as in the front of the pack as well. The crowd had a mixed night with Perry, but they know they he is the best candidate for the Tea Party. Even though some things on his record are questionable, he has the record as Texas Governor that would make him a formidable candidate against Obama.

Herman Cain: Cain the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO had a strong showing on the night. He once again showed that he is the anti-politician candidate. For the most part it resonates with voters. He continues to bring up his 9-9-9 economic plan, which he says is the best way to get America working again.

Michele Bachmann: Probably had the most to gain from last night’s debate, and she did. Coming into the debate, Bachmann lost most of her numbers in the polls. After Perry entered the race last month, her poll numbers have been steadily dropping. She hit Perry the hardest out of any candidate on the stage. They will continue to duke it out until the Iowa Caucuses roll around, unless she starts losing money and is forced to drop

Newt Gingrich: Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich continued to show what a policy heavyweight he is. When Blitzer asked him a question, he was ready to go immediately. Newt knows he is unelectable and has no chance at winning the nomination, but when he speaks there is no other person that I would rather see up against Obama that Gingrich. Another thing I love about Gingrich is that he refuses to attack the other candidates. In the MSNBC debate last week, the moderators tried but he wouldn’t bite.

Rick Santorum: Former Senator Santorum had one of the strongest performances of the night. As a candidate with little chance of getting the nomination (he is starting to realize that) he showed that he was going to hit the front runners, hard. He hit Perry hard on the HPV vaccine, and immigration. Santorum at this point is trying to make a case for Vice President, but it’s still way too early to be talking about that.

Jon Huntsman: Huntsman once again proved how irrelevant he is in this race. On some policy questions, he showed that he could hang with the rest of the field, but unfortunately Huntsman tried to be a comedian, and it fell flat. Huntsman is consistently polling between 1 and 2 percent in polls, and he is going to stay in the basement for the foreseeable future.

Ron Paul: I will not waste your time writing about Ron Paul. Last night he alienated everyone who isn’t on the Ron Paul Crazy Train. He basically blamed 9/11 on the United States. From what I could tell, it was the only comment of the night that received audible boos.

As a Republican, I couldn’t be happier about this field. If Obama keeps going in the direction that he is going, any of these candidates could beat him. For the time being though, we will look at Romney and Perry and assume that this is a two man race.

The next debate will be broadcast by Fox News, and will take place at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando.

When I first got into journalism, I was excited to dig into investigative journalism and work through different public information officers and sources to get the truth for the students. Unfortunately, I went on to find out that those aren’t always the stories I would get to report.

There is nothing worse for me than to have to write about someone young dying. Especially when alcohol may have been involved, and in some cases, the death could have been avoided, like in a DUI crash.

Whether it be the recent death of John Grosso, who we later learned was over the legal limit, or even Chelsea Torres, who died in an accident on her 21st birthday in a wrong-way crash, these accidents could have been avoided.

I applaud UCF for requiring new students to take a course on alcohol education, but in all honesty it’s not enough — just like the task forces of police that raid bars aren’t enough. As students, we need to look out for each other. The students are going to be the ones to solve this problem, not the administration or the police forces.

At the same time, the recent action to suspend all “wet events” by the UCF Greek Council is one of the worst decisions anyone could make. This wont stop people from drinking, it’ll stop fraternities and sororities from registering their events with alcohol. That means instead of having all the tough measures about security, and steps to check ID’s to prevent underage drinking, there will be more under-the-UCF-radar house parties and pre-games, where underage drinkers will have an easier time getting to alcohol.

Remember when US government officials tried prohibition in the 1920′s? How did that work out for them?

We all think that something so tragic can’t happen to us, until it’s too late.

I also want to make another thing clear: Medical Amnesty can save lives and it’s a shame that the University of Florida has it, but the state’s largest university here in Orlando doesn’t.

The University of Florida describes its Medical Amnesty Policy as this: “The Medical Amnesty Policy is designed to encourage students to make responsible decisions and seek prompt, professional, medical assistance and treatment in serious or life-threatening situations that result from alcohol and/or other drug abuse such as alcohol poisoning or drug overdose. MAP seeks to diminish fear of disciplinary and conduct sanctions in such situations and to encourage individuals and organizations to seek needed medical attention for students in distress from alcohol and drug use.”

Medical Amnesty would help make it easy for students to call 911 when their friends have too much to drink, or may take an illegal substance, instead of putting off the potentially life-saving call because they’re afraid of the consequences their friends may face for it. We should remove the obstacles that get in the way of saving lives like others in the state, because nothing is more valuable than life.

To sum it all up, in this journalist’s opinion, Student Government officials should work with the Golden Rule Review Committee and Vice President of Student Development and Enrollment Services Maribeth Ehasz to catch up with other state universities and enact a Medical Amnesty Policy. Greek Council should end its ban of all safely organized and registered “wet events,” and students should learn from the tragedies of the past to help solve this major issue affecting universities across the nation.

Although we don’t know whether Ann had too much to drink that night or not, we know her death has caused our campus to reconsider how we deal with the college drinking problem faced across the country. We owe it to Ann to make the right changes, in our personal choices and at the university-level. Changing policies to make the UCF drinking situation even more dangerous than it is only makes this tragic situation worse. But enacting Medical Amnesty to truly make students safer, will help Ann’s impact on UCF last forever, even though her time on campus was much too short.

It’s time we all stand up and do the right thing — in honor of Ann.

On Thursday, President Obama gave what was dubbed a “major” speech on the Middle East. However, the big focus towards the second half of the speech was the peace situation between Israel and the Palestinians. Some pundits are calling the speech a “major change” in U.S. policy.

I am calling it a disgrace.

President Obama today called for the Palestinians and Israelis to come back to the table and start moving rapidly towards a peace deal. Unfortunately for the Israelis, the President is calling for them to move their borders back to what is called the 1967 borders, with minor swaps.

Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, who is scheduled to visit the White House on Friday, came out with a statement against that idea right after the Speech. The Prime Minister called the 1967 borders “indefensible.”

He also said, it would “leave major Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria beyond those lines.”
Throughout its history, Israel has had to defend itself against neighbors who have said that the Israelis have no right to exist. Netanyahu also said today that peace will never come until all claims against Israel have been resolved.

If Israel were to go back to the 1967 borders there would be major changes. First, Israel would be forced to give up the strategic region located in the north, the Golan Heights. This region is considered vital to Israel’s security. Israelis say that if they were to lose the region, there would be a significant increase in the potential for attacks from Syria and Lebanon.

The second region would be Jerusalem. Back before 1967 when the Palestinians controlled Jerusalem, there were restrictions on Jews even being able to visit the Western Wall. As the holiest site in the world to members of the Jewish Faith, it would be morally heartbreaking, and emotionally painstaking. However, Obama did mention that he would like to see land swaps, without going into detail on those plans.

As a Jewish person who recently visited Israel, I cannot imagine the country without them.
With this major shift in policy, Obama is putting an additional speed bump to a dialogue that is already in a stalemate. It is unthinkable to me that a sitting American President would call on our biggest ally in the Middle East to give up such strategically, and religiously important areas.

President Obama should be ashamed of himself. And the Jews, who voted for him, should seriously reconsider their views on this President when he comes up for reelection next year.

What you need to realize is that what the President did today was not just talk; he physically changed the U.S. approach to the entire situation. It will be interesting to see if there is a statement made tomorrow by either leader, after they meet at the White House.

The President today also called on Syria to cease all action being taken on demonstrators in their country. He also praised the additional uprisings around the region. He also questioned how the Iranian regime could congratulate the demonstrators of other countries while at the same time denouncing and firing on its own demonstrators.

The race for the White House in 2012 has begun. With a few questions left to answer, I think the biggest one is Mike Huckabee and it looks like that answer will be made shortly before 9 p.m. tonight. Former Governor Mike Huckabee is someone we need to run for president, especially against President Obama.

Tonight, the former Governor turned television host will make an important message on his Fox News Channel Show “Huckabee.” People who are closest to Huckabee don’t even know his decision. Ed Rollins who is considered one of his closest advisors has said that it would seem that Huckabee is going to take a pass on 2012. However, Governor Huckabee has been quite tight lipped up to this moment.

It would seem that Huckabee, and more than likely members of his family are the only ones that know his true intentions. Officials at Fox News are even out of the loop, with Huckabee saying that his own Executive producer has no idea what the announcement is going to be.

Tonight is definitely the biggest in the very young 2012 campaign.

Either way, Huckabee’s decision is going to set the tone for the rest of the election. On one hand, if Huckabee decides that he is going to throw his hat into the ring for the White House he will probably be getting into a race where he is the presumed front runner. His poll numbers are consistently first or second with Mitt Romney usually being up there with him.

From my point-of-view, Mike Huckabee needs to run in 2012. He is one of the perfect people to run in the GOP primary. He is charismatic, and will bring some life into the campaign. As a member of the Republican Party, I am going to be watching Huckabee very closely. I believe that along with Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty and Mitch Daniels these are the ones that would be worth watching.

Now, if Huckabee decides that 2012 just is not for him things would also turn out to be very interesting. Who would receive the highly coveted social conservative vote? Huckabee who is an ordained Baptist Minister is assumed to be the person who social conservatives would flock to at this time. However, even on Bill O’Reilly’s show last night, Huckabee mentioned that the economy would be the central part to anyone’s campaign at this time.

Ultimately, I believe that Huckabee will decide to run tonight. I believe that the factors surrounding his decision tonight are just too strong for him to pass up on this possible run. While although I feel as if it is too early to make an endorsement, I feel tonight’s decision one way or another will make things begin to move much faster. All I can say is folks, tonight is the real beginning of 2012 one way or another. But like I said, I think he is in!

The other day, Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had announced that he will be seeking the Presidency of the United States. Speaker Gingrich is one of the people credited with the 1994 Republican Revolution, announced his decision to seek the Republican Nomination via his official Twitter Account. Gingrich called for American’s to stand up with him, because this is something that not “one person in the Oval Office,” can do on his own.

Speaker Gingrich is an interesting candidate moving forward. He is the first major candidate to officially declare that he will be seeking the nation’s highest office.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRSz21Vedxc

To me, Gingrich is someone to really watch in the republican primaries. If social conservatives across the country can get past the fact that he has been married three times, then he could be just who the Republicans need going up against President Obama.

Gingrich is what some would call a policy heavyweight. He is well versed in Foreign Policy, as well as the country’s domestic problems. Gingrich takes a lot of credit when discussing the Clinton era Welfare reforms.

Gingrich going head to head against Obama would make conservatives salivate. Obama, who dare I say is not the best speaker without a teleprompter, would have a really tough time discussing policy on a lectern against the former Speaker.

While I am not ready to endorse a candidate for President, what I will say is that I am very much looking forward to how Republicans across the country receive Gingrich in his second go around in Politics. However, I will say that he better become a little more exciting, because if his candidacy is going to be anything like his announcement today, it could be a short run for him.

Last year, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, (R-FL), made headlines when his poll numbers soared in the GOP Primary against then Governor Charlie Crist. He later went on to win the General Election against the Republican Governor, who made a controversial switch to no party affiliation.

Rubio, a Tea Party favorite, ran on a platform of fiscal conservatism. Since the election, his name has been thrown into the ring as a potential 2012 Vice-Presidential Candidate. However, with the 2010 elections well behind us, people are now looking towards 2012 for something new and exciting.

Well, we may have found him.

Adam Hasner, the former majority leader of the Florida House of Representatives, has thrown his hat into the ring for Florida’s other senate seat — currently held by two-term Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson

Nelson has announced that he would seek reelection in a year where Florida is once again being hyped as a state that must be won in order to win the White House. In turn, this most likely means that whichever party wins the White House in Florida, will also do well in both federal and state elections.

Hasner is considered by many political elites as being the protégé of Sen. Rubio. Although he is not a shoe-in for the nomination, he is definitely someone to watch. Recently, Hasner has come out and viciously attacked the debt and spending going on in our country right now.

Our country faces an uphill battle, and we as citizens need to make sure that we continue to send the right people to Washington to fight for us. Rep. Hasner is the perfect person to represent us in the United States Senate. His record is exceptional. He has been one of the biggest supporters, from our state, of passing a Balanced Budget Amendment.

As a Conservative, I believe that he has what it takes to tackle the Beltway establishment.

After Rubio appointed Hasner as his Majority leader, the relationship bloomed. I think that this is exactly what Florida needs representing us in the United States Senate. Their relationship with one another has the ability to shape the way we are represented for years to come. Florida can show that we are leading the way towards fiscal conservatism.

In congress, members are getting ready for a showdown on the national debt limit. Hasner has said that the limit shouldn’t be raised without first simplifying the tax code, and with a far reaching balanced budget amendment.

As far as I am concerned, the Republicans in Congress should not cave to the pressures of the Democrats. One way or another the debt ceiling will be raised. The American People want to see real spending cuts, and the best way to see those cuts would be to attach it to something that will get done. As much as I would like to see a Balanced Budget Amendment, it will not be seriously considered until sometime in 2012 if at all. Adam Hasner, as a candidate for U.S. Senate will keep this conversation alive. This is why I believe he is the best person to represent us, as the next senator from Florida.

Mike Kilbride will likely go down as the most controversial Student Government Association president in UCF history. But as shocking as this may sound, we at KnightNews.com don’t believe that reputation is entirely Kilbride’s fault.

And as history judges Kilbride’s administration, the lion’s share of the blame for the firestorms of controversy should not be placed on Kilbride, but instead on the highest levels of the UCF administration — for failing to teach the student body president about the realities of public service and how to avoid stepping into scandal after scandal.

Take, for example, the lavish SGA Executive Cabinet Retreat. When you spend $8,000 on a five-star Disney area resort using public money, the public will be upset. But where did Kilbride learn this bad habit? And why did he choose this Disney area golf resort? Chances are, SGA wasn’t the first UCF entity to pick a lavish location for a retreat. In fact, a google search for UCF PLC retreat suggests University President John Hitt’s leadership council also chooses Disney area golf resorts for its retreat location. The bottom line is that Kilbride was probably just mimicking behavior of other UCF leaders when he made the outrageous decision to host a luxury, $8,000 retreat on the student dime.

And therein lies the root of the problems that plagued Kilbride’s SGA this year — Kilbride trusted the advice, or followed the lead of top UCF administrators, instead of listening to the fury of his fellow students struggling to make ends meet with skyrocketing tuition hikes when their parents are making less than ever before.

ARCHIVES: Kilbride Giving KnightNews.com a Tour of UCF Gym

These are the same administrators who are moving full steam ahead with a plan to strip the treasured UCF arboretum of its protected status so it one day can be bulldozed in the name of expansion — even though 87 percent of students voting in the last SGA election wanted to keep it preserved, in a way Central Park is to New York City.

And these are the same administrators who refuse to release witness statements detailing how fellow UCF Knights football players remember watching Ereck Plancher start to die, following a reportedly brutal conditioning workout. The students and Plancher’s family deserve the truth about what happened that day, but UCF is choosing to keep it secret.

If you think about it, can you really fault Kilbride for following advice from UCF lawyers enabling him to hide how he spends $15 million of student money, when UCF administrators follow legal advice enabling them to hide the truth of how a son died from his grieving parents? In both cases, those in charge could choose transparency and openness, but instead they choose secrecy.

Kilbride is no more to blame for his transparency problems and resulting public ridicule than a teenager would be if his parents forced him to ride his bicycle around with training wheels. It looks just as ridiculous for a college senior to hide behind the FERPA privacy law when spending millions worth of public money as it would for a 15-year-old to ride around town using a safety device he should have outgrown long ago. UCF administrators may think they’re helping SGA leaders by interpreting laws in a way to let them hide their spending, but they’re really just holding them back, while their peers at places like UF pass them by and learn the valuable lesson of how to be accountable with public money before they graduate.

If you think we’re crazy about how we covered Kilbride’s SGA, think again. A panel of professional journalists gave us a first place award, when judging our work against that of student publications over the entire Southeast for our story on Kilbride’s $8,000 reception desk. This is the type of scrutiny those in public service should expect when they entire the “real world,” where FERPA does not apply. Just check out what happened when a local school board allowed a lavish retreat at the Ritz Carlton. They got blasted by the media, and Lake County School Superintendent Susan Moxley looked like a complete idiot by dodging the questions.

Kilbride is not a bad person, he just got bad advice. He’s done a lot of good while at UCF; on O-Team, with Knight-Thon and by working to bring students a 24-hour study space. Hopefully, Kilbride has finally learned a lesson when it comes to spending someone else’s money and with being more humble. His decisions to help lower the cost of next year’s retreat indicate he has, even if he isn’t ready to explain what his experience as SGA president has taught him to our cameras.

The UCF administration set Kilbride up to fail. For that, they owe him an apology. But on the other side of the coin, their ridiculous way of handling things and encouraging the hiding of spending exposed Kilbride to media firestorms that will leave him more prepared than “professionals” like Moxley are when reporters come asking tough questions.

If Kilbride can prove that he’s learned from his experience at UCF, we think he deserves a chance to give being a leader in the real world a ride. But Mike, make sure you take off those training wheels first. They’re only holding you back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhJp0W0ku2w

KnightNews.com has learned Kilbride posted the lyrics to this goodbye song on his Facebook profile, hours after leaving the SGA office as president for the last time.

And on that note, we say, “Goodnight and joy be with you, Mr. Kilbride!”

A revolution for student rights on campus has sprung up the same week as the SGA Presidential Election — and KnightNews.com is bringing in team coverage over the next three days to extensively cover both these important issues.

At 7 p.m. Monday night, KnightNews.com will be in the Pegasus Ballroom of the Student Union for a program called Defending Free Speech at UCF, featuring Adam Kissel, a VP of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Kissel was invited by a broad coalition of student groups who share diverging political views but have a united voice on free speech — students are entitled to that right and it should be protected.

Even KnightNews.com has faced illegal restrictions of our First Amendment and other rights by the UCF state agency. We are proud to be the official media sponsor of this important event, and we stand firmly behind every citizen’s right to free speech at UCF — whatever the message.

On the official event page, organizers had this to say:

“Do you think it appropriate that the UCF administration has outlined specific areas where freedom of speech can be exercised while on the rest of campus it is prohibited?

WE DON’T!”

RSVP for the event on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=195189007188073

KnightNews.com’s editorial board encourages every student to come out and learn about your rights from Kissel and FIRE. This independent group specializes in defending student rights, and it would behoove you to get a second opinion other than UCF’s on what rights you are entitled to.

Both SGA candidates were invited to this event as well.

That being said, we ultimately decided to make an endorsement for the following reason: both campaign tickets have candidates who have been involved in SGA over the past several years, and we have heavily covered stories involving all of them. This gives us the unique perspective and ability to compare their current platforms to the way they’ve actually behaved in office. It’s been said that past behavior is the best indicator of future performance; if that’s the case, then we have all their past behaviors – a lot of it on video.

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Our editorial board has extensive experience with SGA, and we know exactly what it takes to be a great president and vice president. It’s that simple. They need to be able to stand up against the administration to help students, they must have policies of openness and transparency and they sure as heck better be incredibly experienced and fluent with fiscal policies and the Activity and Service Fee.

We interviewed all the candidates, read their platforms thoroughly and have made the decision to endorse Nicholas Gurney and Fernando Gonzales.

The Fight for Students

These candidates are being elected, first and foremost, to fight for students. What happens when students want one thing, but the UCF Board of Trustees wants the opposite? Gurney and Gonzales have a strong history of making decisions benefitting the students – even when their “bosses” disapproved or when it upset the administration. Most recently, when SGA President Mike Kilbride shut out public access to the Knightmare database, which gives a breakdown of how SGA is spending a $15 million budget of student money, Gurney wrote an opinion as Attorney General interpreting relevant statutes and rules in a way that gives student leaders access to see how money is spent, while Gonzales was the senator who stood up to Kilbride – and much of his fellow senators – fighting for the same thing.

McCann, on the other hand, in his most important test in standing up to the administration to fight for students – parking decal hikes – he voted in favor of raising the cost of decals to students. This begs the question; will he vote in favor of other fee increases when he is sitting on the Board of Trustees? We’d rather not have to cross our fingers and find out. As for Brock, well, he has never sat on a committee where he had to make a controversial and public vote directly against the administration, but while sitting on the Kilbride cabinet, not once did he speak out publicly against Kilbride’s policies. Students don’t need more of the same. They have spoken, and it’s quite the opposite.

Transparency

As the primary news outlet for many UCF students, we take this one personally.

The bottom line is that if the President runs an administration where budgets are hidden, decisions are not justified and doors are constantly closed, students are left out of the loop and leaders are unable to be held accountable.

This year, despite Kilbride’s strict internal policies of his staff’s having to send everything through his “spin doctors” before talking to media, Gurney consistently provided us with information when we asked, whether it was objective statutory information or his official opinion. He was timely, didn’t give us a runaround and consistently supported students openly. And the same goes for Gonzales – when students wanted answers, he pushed as hard as he could and took it to the public eye.

As for McCann, he did a great job this year as Chief Justice. Although he has not directly been involved in a situation where he was not transparent, we would have liked to see the Judicial Council have encouraged senators to file a complaint so it could have stepped in and issued a ruling to force Kilbride’s decisions of secrecy to be overturned. The best example of this would have been the Judicial Council striking the illegal SGA statute allowing secret meetings. Brock was part of an administration where transparency was treated like a four letter word. Granted, he was open with general information regarding the KnightDrive and KnightLynx programs, but who wouldn’t be open about their positive projects when they wanted to garner publicity? These guys were somewhere between opaque and translucent – this is why our decision is so clear. Pun intended.

Fiscal Responsibility

With a budget of nearly $17 million dollars next year, the students you elect had better be prepared to know their stuff. They can read up all they want on the SGA website to be able to talk intelligently during debates, but at the end of the day, there is no substitute for experience.

It is common knowledge within SGA that the primary means of gaining valuable insight to the workings of the budget is in Senate. Gurney and Gonzales have a combined fives years of experience in senate, which allocates student money throughout the year. Additionally, Gonzales is the chairman of the CRT committee, which shows that even his fellow senators have further entrusted him to handle funds. Going beyond basic fiscal understandings, we believe that Gurney’s legal expertise as Attorney General and Gonzales’ proven passion for helping students are exactly what students need in the coming year.

With all due respect to McCann and Brock, these two have absolutely zero experience in dealing with the budget in the capacity of their positions aside from minor pockets of money put aside for their respective departments. Sure, they’ve sat in on meetings and have a general familiarity, but just like an avid Orlando Magic fan has been to every game and knows a lot about basketball, it doesn’t mean that coach Van Gundy will sign them to the roster.

The Bottom Line

There are no bad candidates. McCann and Brock, throughout the election process, have been incredibly professional, friendly and insightful. They’ve shown they can be great leaders, inside and outside of SGA. Heck, I’d love to hang out with them both and go grab a beer with them anytime. But that’s not what this is about.

Nick Gurney said it best at the Greek Town Hall Debate last week: “Students don’t need a best friend president and best friend vice president; students need the best president and the best vice president.” In our opinion, Gurney and Gonzales have solid, proven experience in the key areas of being a president. McCann and Brock also have tons of experience, but in areas that are not as crucial to this position. Sure they have great marketing, a beautiful website and they dress like Robert Downey, Jr. in ‘Iron Man.,’ but does that mean they can hold the highest office of a UCF student?

Imagine if Bill Gates applied for a job at McDonalds flipping burgers. Although it may seem like a no-brainer to hire him since he is incredibly brilliant and successful, it still begs the question: does having experience making computer software make him qualified to make me an Egg McMuffin? I doubt it. If anything, I would love to see Gurney hire these individuals on his executive cabinet, because I would sure hate to see their talents go to waste.

The overwhelming majority of individuals rallying for either side are there because they are friends with Gurney or friends with McCann. I know this because I have managed six elections, and it’s the same every year. We know the individuals in the McCann and Brock camp will read this story and be upset and think we are crazy, just as Gurney’s and Gonzales’ people would do if it were reversed.

But we believe, in this situation, it was our duty as a news organization which just won an award for exposing Kilbride’s questionable spending, to lay our stance out for our readers. I hope everyone can read this opinion and take it for what it’s worth – an opinion of someone who has seen it all, but doesn’t know it all.

Andrew Stein
Founder, KnightNews.com
Former Student Body Presidential Candidate
Former Director of Public Relations // Student Government Association