The Louisville Cardinal
The independent weekly student newspaper at the University of Louisville since 1926
OCTOBER 13 - 19, 2009
Little ejoys playing
four intramurals
By Whitney Spencer
The Louisville Cardinal
sports@louisvillecardinal.com
As a senior about to receive his degree in communica­tion,
one would think Brent Little would be focused on
nothing more than making it through the final semesters
of his college career and beginning his new journey in
life. Most seniors, though involved, make graduating as
quickly as possible their main goal. For Little, college is
to be enjoyed up until the very last minute. And he has
found an abundance of joy during his college career, by
participating in University of Louisville intramurals.
"Freshman year, 2006, I came in and needed a get­away,"
Little said. "You hear about the freshman 15. And
you have all this free time on your hands. I was looking
for something to do."
Entering U of L as a student in the Speed School of
Engineering, Little initially found that time was scarce.
He quickly realized that Speed School wasn't for him and
changed his major to communication. He then found
himself with lots of time, and a drive to do so much more
on campus.
Little already had the athletic skills to compete in sev­eral
of the intramural sports offered. Throughout his high
school career, he played football, basketball and baseball,
and ran track. In college, he wanted to find a way to feed
his competitive drive and keep challenging himself.
"When they told me about intramurals .. .I knew I
would have to do it," Little said.
Little always had the desire to try out for the U of L
baseball team. After learning of their workout schedule
and the conflicts to his already full load, he realized that
his focus would be best suited on intramurals.
Intramurals at the University of Louisville consist of
INTRAMURALS see page 4
www.louisvillecardinal.com VOLUME 84, ISSUE 8 • 8 PAGES, 1 SECTlON
SGA sends delegation to national
conference in Washington, D.C.
By Billy S. Garland
The Louisville Cardinal
bgarland@louisvillecardinal.com
In the current economy
there is a great deal of dis­cussion
about value. What is
the dollar worth? This ques­tion
resonates as strongly for
University of Louisville stu­dents
as it does for investors
on Wall Street. This is partly
due to the fact that a portion
of student tuition and fees
goes to finance the Student
Government Association.
When asked what stu­dents'
money was getting
them from the SGA, 0.].
Oleka, student government
president, hesitated before
responding.
"Well, I would say that
it is getting them adequate
representation from their
student government," said
Oleka.
To better define the con­cept
of adequate represen­tation,
in recent years SGA
has sent members of its ex­ecutive
staff to the American
Student Government Asso­ciation's
National Student
Government Summit in
Washington, D.C.
"It was beneficial because
we were able to bounce
ideas off of other SGA's,"
said Chief of Staff Andrew
Carroll. "Still, it's difficult
to bounce ideas off of other
schools, because their situa­tion
and their SGA may be
completely different. It may
not have been a good use of
money."
This year, at the sugges­tion
of the former admin­istration,
U of L sent five
members of the SGA to
the convention, held Sept.
30-0ct. 3. Both Oleka and
Carroll admit that the trip
was rather expensive, but
both insist that every pos­sible
attempt was made to
keep costs down.
"We did everything we
could to save money," said
Carroll. "It's the students'
money, so we didn't want to
waste it."
ILLUSTRATJON BILLY S. GARLANDffHE LOUISVILLE CARDINAL
According to Carroll, it
cost nearly $400 a person
just for the hotel accommo­dations
and air travel. That
doesn't include the conven­tion
cost of roughly $460
for each individual, accord­ing
to the American Student
Government Association's
Web site. However, Oleka
explained that the money
did not come from this
year's budget.
"What we tried to do was
use leftover funds from last
year," said Oleka. "The way
it works is that, we took over
in May, but the fiscal year
doesn't end until the first of
July. So we have the money
that last year's SGA didn't
spend. It's almost like tran­sition
funds. To make sure
we didn't spend this year's
money, we signed up early
so that we could use these
funds. We're trying to spe11d
money wisely and not spend
it frivolously."
While both Oleka and
Carroll anticipate that mem­bers
of the next administra­tion
will go to a leadership
conference, it is doubtful
that it will be the American
Student Government Asso­ciation's
National Summit.
"I really don't know why
they suggested it last year,"
said Carroll. "As far as get­ting
what you paid for, I
don't know that we will
make the same recommen­dation
for next year.
Carroll belj_eves that dif­ferences,
like this one, from
the former administration
have led to a more efficient
and responsible SGA.
"Without condemning
the past administration,
there is a notion of, 'Well we
have x amount of dollars, so
we have to spend it,"' said
SGA see page 2