Central Florida Future, Vol. 28 No. 40, February 13, 1996

              Golden Knights suffer heartbreaking toss to TAAC leading College of Charleston- p.12
The ^_^__ '
Central Florida Future
Vol. 28 • No. 40
Serving the University of Central Florida since 1968
Feb. 13, 1996
Apartments to alleviate doim shortage
by JENNIFER LINDSTROM
Contributing writer
It's that time of year when
students need to make decisions
about where they will be living this
summer and next fall. Guaranteeing
students a spot for on-campus housing is becoming more difficult at
UCF, as the campus population continues to grow from its current
26,000.
On-campus housing has about
1,600 rooms in residence halls and
about 750 private rooms in the Lake
Claire Apartments. There were
1,650 students living in the residence halls for the fall of 1995. The
actual number of students living on
campus changes continuously based
on students moving out of dorms or
into double and triple occupancy
rooms.
In a memorandum sent to all
current residential students from the
housing office, students were notified about what their options will be
for next fall housing.
The majority of residence hall
(Lake, Volusia, Osceola, Polk, Orange, Seminole, and Brevard) beds
will be held for incoming freshmen.
Only 200 rooms in these dorms will
be allocated for the returning residential students.
The remainder of the current
residents, unless they are on the
Prepaid housing program, must either look into Lake Claire or find
something else off-campus. Florida
Prepaid participants who have active dormitory plan contracts will
be first priority.
The Lake Claire Apartments
are available only for students who
have completed a minimum of 24
credits.
The deadline for Lake Claire
applications and a deposit of $100
for current residential students, and
$ 150 for new students, is Thursday,
Feb. 15. However, there is no guarantee that a room will be held for a
person who makes the deposit. If
the applicant is turned down, the
money is refundable.
The problem still remains of
where a student will have to go for
housing if they are turned down on-
campus.
Generally about 1,400 students of the residential halls are
freshmen. With only 750 rooms,
Lake Claire cannot possibly house
all of them when they meet the 24
credit demand. Students already living in Lake Claire have the option
to keep their room.
An option for students trying
to decide what they will do if they
cannot receive on-campus housing
are the new developments, Knights
Krossing and University Club
Townhouses. Both of these housing complexes soon to be complete
are close to the campus and will
provide approximately 2,300 beds
between both facilities.
Both complexes offer individual leases to the students. Stu
dents are responsible only for their
payments, which cover their bedroom and portion of the utilities at a
set cost. There are roomate matching services available through the
complex. A 12 month lease is required of both.
Knights Krossing is located
at the Quadrangle, off AlafayaTrail,
and is a apartment style facility. It is
within walking and biking distance
to the campus and is designed with
2,3 or 4 bedroom apartments.
Each apartment is equipped
with a fully furnished living room and
dining room, a double bed and a bath-
roomineachindividual bedroom. Also
included is a full size washer and
dryer, fully equipped kitchen and
phone jacks in every room.
Electric, water, sewer and
cable are all included in the monthly
lease that varies depending on the
size of the apartment. A computer
lab, fitness center, pool, volleyball,
basketball and tennis courts are also
a part of the complex.
University Club Townhouses
is located at the corner of Alafaya
and Lokanotosa Trail, close to the
Research Park. This development
offers a two-story, 4 bedroom, 2 and
half bathroom townhouse. Each unit
includes a washer and dryer, a fully
equipped kitchen, c|Eble television
and phone jacks in all bedrooms.
The complex also has a fitness center, swimming pool, basses APARTMENTS, page 3
BATE OX
photo/HUNT
Students dance to the music at Generic Soul last
Friday night in the Wild Pizza. The rave was
thrown by the Campus Activities Board.
Spending procedures overlooked in    Elections suspended
use of presidential discretionary fund
By JENNIFER LUPO
Staff Writer	
In the past five months,
$105,515 of student moneys have
beenspentfromtheSGAPresident's
projects account.
The money is part of Activity
and Service Fees which are collected from students according to
the number of hours they are enrolled. This year that total is $4.6
million.
Through a rigorous budgeting process most of these funds are
set aside for operations, salaries and
services provided by SGA.
Earlier this year, the
President's Discretionary fund totaled $120,000. Later it jumped to
$ 182,925 after a transfer was made.
In order to ensure proper
spending there are purchasing procedures SGA members must follow.
According to Statute 800.6,
"All Student Government Officers
must notify the Student Government Accountant(s) and Administrative Services Coordinator prior
to initiating any purchase..."
SGA President Miguel
Torregrosa says he and his staff had
no knowledge of this until just recently. They have been purchasing
advertisements as well as other
items and then alerting the staff as
to the purchases made.
At one point, the University
Purchasing Office refused to pay
for advertisements totaling $23,000.
Torregrosa blames many of
the mistakes and over-spending on
the fact that his administration didn't
have a learning period.
• Usually the SGA President
takes office in the beginning of
May. Torregrosa and Vice President Frank Amoros were found in
violation of election statutes after
their election and were not allowed
to take office until August 4,1995.
Torregrosa explained that the
three months during the summer is
usually a chance for the cabinet and
staff to learn spending procedures
and get things set for the upcoming
school year.
One incident which violated
purchasingprocedureoccurred during the fall semester when two fraternities were given $800 each to
advertise in their fraternity rush brochures.
First, the staff was not notified of the purchase before hand.
Then, according to Florida Statute
240.235 section 2, the activity and
service fee may only be used for
"duly recognized student organizations, the membership of which is
open to all students at the university,
without regard to race, sex, or religion."
Torregrosa felt that this was
an outlet never before used for advertising which should be attempted.
Looking back, Torregrosa
see GOVERNMENT, page 5
G SGA president
delcares campus
state of emergency.
by JEFF HUNT
News editor
Citing the lack of enough confirmed election commissioners, an
assistant election commissioner and
an Attorney General, SGA President Miguel Torregrosa declared a
campus state of emergency Friday
and suspended the 1996 SGA presidential elections.
Torregrosa invoked an SGA
statute that allows the president, in
agreement with the Chief Election
Commissioner, to suspend any election where a campus emergency has
the capability to impede the voting
process.
Torregrosa said he felt the
lack of these important officials to
oversee the elections would greatly
hinder the elections and might cause
the voting to be contested if held on
time. He said the extra week would
allow the necessary positions to be
filled and the remaining problems
worked out.
Torregrosa also felt that it
would extend active campaigning
and allow students to learn more
about the candidates.
"We're trying to run as
smooth an election as possible,"
Torregrosa said. "It's crisis management at this point and time."
Torregrosa said a number of
unexpected problems came up that
led to the need to declare a state of
campus emergency.
By SGA election statutes, 15
election commissioners are needed.
However, only 12 have been confirmed through the Senate.
The three remainingpositions
should have been filled last Thursday night during the Senate meeting, however one nominee was dismissed due to possible bias and the
other two were voted down.
Election commissioners preside over the elections to ensure that
they are fair and no violations occur.
Another problem was last
week's resignation of Erin Goode,
the Chief Elections Commissioner.
see ELECTIONS, page 5
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