I am by no means a fan of frames, but for this page they may just work. Put the left-hand navigation into a frame of its own so it stays put while the content on the right scrolls. Again, I really rally against using frames unless there is a good reason. This, I think, is a good reason. There are no incorrect design elements, as long as the element serves a good purpose on the page.
White space is a part of the page that doesn t have any text on it.
On your current page, you have a great deal of white space under what you now use as your navigation. However, you have made a point of filling much of the white space with awards, a CGI-based poll, and other image elements. Below those images you have left a lot of white space, probably because you simply ran out of images. Neither will your readers. But keep in mind that content must have support.