Rick Santorum pulled out of the Republican presidential race Monday, April 9, putting Mitt Romney in more than a 30 percent lead over the other two candidates. Romney currently has 42 percent support and has been in a consistent lead since late February, according to Gallup.com

Ron Paul has 10 percent support, with Newt Gingrich tied at 10 percent, according to the most recent data from Gallup.

As of the most recent primaries, on April 3, the Associated Press estimates that Romney has 658 delegates of the 1,144 available. And some pundits are already claiming Romney as the nominee to run against President Obama in the fall.

The November election looks like it will be a close race. According to a poll conducted by Gallup, 49 percent of registered voters said they would vote for Obama, compared with the 45 percent who would vote for Romney.

The next primaries, in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, will take place April 24. The Indiana primary will take place May 8.

Earlier this month, the Federal Communications Commission fined Indiana Wesleyan University’s TV station, WIWU-TV51, $13,000 for failing to meet the records requirements for informational and educational children’s programming.

The FCC states that all low-frequency Class A stations, like WIWU, must play a certain amount of children’s programming on the station. WIWU played the children’s programming but did not document it correctly, according to Dr. Randall King, director of broadcast media and chairman of the Communication Division at IWU. The FCC notified WIWU’s lawyers about a year ago, but the fine is just now being administered.

“We made a mistake,” King said. “I’m embarrassed on behalf of the station. I’m embarrassed on behalf of what this means for the university. But in the scheme of things, it’s not a disaster, and we’re taking the appropriate steps to respond.”

King said the station is not going to pay the fine without challenging the FCC’s decision.

WIWU was not the only Class A station reprimanded by the FCC this month. RBR.com reported that TV stations WHDO-CA in Orlando, Fla., and WZGS-CA in Raleigh, N.C., were fined as well.

RBR.com also reported that there has been an influx in Class A fines, administered by the FCC. Media lawyer Scott R. Flick said this is the FCC’s way of pushing Class A stations off the air in order to free up more spectrum.

Indiana Wesleyan University media communication students won 10 awards from the Indiana Association of School Broadcasters last month – the highest number of awards ever brought home by IWU media students.

The students won for both TV and radio pieces, and came in second overall in the TV category.

Matt Green (alumnus ‘11) received first place in TV videography for his piece on the Wabash Motocross race, which aired on “Crossroads,” WIWU-51’s magazine program. “Crossroads” also won a first-place award in the TV newsmagazine category for a fall 2011 episode. The episode included stories produced by Green, Jaclyn Heck (sr) and Amanda Johnson (sr).

Chase Evans (sr) also won first place for anchoring “Spectrum News,” IWU’s first win in the TV news anchor category. Spectrum News also won third-place honors for TV newscast.

Second-place awards went to Evans, Heck, Josh Campbell (sr), Russ Clark (alumnus ‘11), Brittney Holmberg (sr), AJ Hoke (sr) and Tim Decker (sr), with a third-place award to Alisha Stevens (alumna ‘11), in a variety of TV and radio categories.

IWU competed against schools such as Ball State University, Valparaiso, Southern Indiana, Goshen and Taylor University.

Heck, who also won an award at last year’s competition, said it’s an honor to compete against schools known for their media departments. She said she hopes IWU’s division will be recognized for its media communication students as well.

Clips from the winning pieces are available to watch at IWUCom.com.

These farewell editorials are supposed to be, I think, a platform for sappiness. Here I am, a senior, graduating in just a few weeks, with several underclassmen to take positions that I used to hold: “Good luck, underclassmen, Ben, Jeremy, blah, blah, blah.”

I am proud of them; I’m excited for them. But this piece is for everyone, the whole student body, if you’re reading.

I hardly remember life – er, college life – before The Sojourn. It’s been a huge part of my college career; it’s helped me shape my plans for the future. It’s taught me how to write professionally, to interact with higher-ups and to be a leader.

I encourage all of you underclassmen to join a student organization or a student-led business like The Sojourn in your remaining years at Indiana Wesleyan University. It was the smartest decision I made.

For me and for many of us upperclassmen on staff, The Sojourn has taught us skills that have landed us internships at magazines, TV stations and publications abroad. We’ve networked with those in authority at IWU or in the Marion area. We’re going to get some killer letters of recommendation.

It’s all about getting involved.

The Sojourn is not the place for everyone, of course. Many of you out there hated us this year. We printed stories you didn’t agree we should write; we exposed rumors some of you wished stayed rumors. Luckily, not all of you will lead the student newspaper for that reason. Luckily, there are organizations for nearly everyone on campus. And if there isn’t one for you – make one.

I’ve always been told that “college is what you make of it.” It couldn’t be truer. So take advantage!

I want to end this piece with a thank-you to my staff this year: to Molly (Mole Sauce), my balancer; to Steven, who challenges me to be a better leader; to Rachel, whose sarcasm brings sanity into Wednesday production nights; to Li’l Jer, my successor; to Nick, let’s-find-a-way-to-stick-a-meme-in-the-newspaper-every-week; to Brent, the nicest IT nerd/theologian I’ve ever met, to Dr. Huckins, our adviser, who’s had to put up with so much this year; and to the rest of the photographers, designers, writers, ad gurus and Web gurus on staff. You’ve been great!

Thanks for an awesome four years,

Lauren Deidra Sawyer