Three’s company

By Joffery A. Blair
Staff Writer

Georgia College & State University marked the end of its annual Homecoming event with the selection of Mr. and Ms. GC&SU.
Although it is GC&SU tradition to select both a queen and a king, this year’s voters gave the university a surprise by electing not one, but two, queens, both holding the title of Ms. GC&SU.
Leah Blasingame and Kristen Schuppe were both elected at Ms. GC&SU and Herby Agnew was elected as Mr. GC&SU.
Joey Villemez, chair of Homecoming, states that this year’s Homecoming court received a total of 521 votes.
“Both girls received 107, votes and Herby received 210,” Villemez said. “We had to recount the votes twice just to be sure of the tie.”
Leah Blasingame, a political science major who represented the National Pan-Hellenic Council, stated that running for Ms. GC&SU was always a life-long dream.
“Running for Ms. GC&SU was something that I have always wanted to do,” Blasingame said. “Because of the competition, I was actually shocked when I found out that Iwon.”
Kristen Schuppe, a history major, was nominated by her sorority, Alpha Delta Pi, to serve on the Homecoming court.
“I was very excited to find out that Leah and I won, because I feel that we are both very involved on campus,” Schuppe said. “I was also very surprised because I knew that all of the other contestants were very qualified.”
Herby Agnew, the vice president for GC&SU’s student Ambassadors, was elected as Mr. GC&SU.
“I was very honored to be nominated because Student Ambassadors is a very prestigious organization,” Agnew said. “In a sense, we represent the university on a daily basis, and for my peers to elect me on such a high honor, that just blew my mind away.”
Dr. Bruce Harshbarger, Vice President and Dean of Students, stated that although this is a rare situation, having two students voted as Ms. GC&SU has happened before.
“I was very surprised, because it also happened just three to four years ago, and at that time and it was for the position of Ms. GC&SU as well. In each case, the top candidates had identical vote totals, which remained identical after a recount,” Harshbarger said. “On the other hand, I was so impressed with the quality of the candidates that I’m not surprised that the voting was very close.”
Although all of the candidates running for Ms. GC&SU wanted to win, both queens agree that they are both delighted to have been chosen.
“It does not bother me at all that there are two queens,” Blasingame said. “I am just excited that I was chosen.”
Although Homecoming, had a good turnout, Villemez states that next years event will be even better.
“I was happy with the overall turnout, but the dance did not have as many people as expected,” Villemez said. “Next year we will have a standing committee with representatives from all over the university. Hopefully, we will be able to make Homecoming the big event that it should be.”
Harshbarger states that although Homecoming needs the alumni participation, the selection of Mr. and Ms. GC&SU during the actual event has been a tradition of this university.
“Since the two basketball games run a total of four hours, I can imagine that the dance may have made for an especially long evening,” Harshbarger said. “Homecoming at GC&SU is not a true homecoming in the sense of alumni participation. The traditional Alumni Weekend is in April, but the Mr. and Ms. GC&SU selection is a genuine tradition in itself.”
Although the results may have surprised the community of GC&SU, the election of two queens not only represents this university, but it also shows just how diverse we are.
“When I first found out about the results, I thought, well, I have two queens,” Agnew said. “I also thought that this situation shows exactly how unique GC&SU really is. So why shouldn’t we be presented in the unique way that we are.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 8 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry