Crash, Burn, and Repeat

Austin Jackson's Tumblr blog. A Carolina Gamecock getting through his senior year of undergrad. Now mix in Student Government, political hi-jinks from both parties and all the things people do when they graduate...and you have my life right about now.

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Before I wade into this story (which is not news if students were paying attention), here's some background info. I'll start with the article that ran in yesterday's DG on student body president Kenny Tracy's appointment of Trenton Smith as his chief of staff.

DG staff edit from Monday: http://www.dailygamecock.com/viewpoints/item/3866-in-our-opinion-commissions-inaction-results-in-appointment

Former presidential chief of staff Alex Ott's response: http://www.dailygamecock.com/viewpoints/item/3887-letter-to-the-editor-sg-criticism-unfair-unsubstantiated

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"Madame President, now is as good a time as any for a civics lesson."

My favorite quote from that speech, in an aside to SG Vice President Emily Saleeby discussing the relevancy debate from the student body elections on the Senate floor in its final meeting before the incoming Senate takes office, Feb. 29, 2012

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Final Prepared Remarks to Student Senate, 2/29/12

Madame President, my fellow Senators, ladies and gentlemen of the Gallery and of the Student Body:

Student Government is not just the Senate, the Cabinet, and the Constitutional Council. It’s not just CAB and Freshman Council. It’s the public health major who didn’t file for Senate during the election. It’s Mr. Lynch’s random friend that he got to vote for Vice President Saleeby during the student body election. It’s that freshman who approached Secretary Tracy wanting into his campaign for student body president. It’s the junior biology major that did not vote in any of the last three SG elections. It’s that transfer student who came in from Midlands Tech just last semester. It’s that upperclassman who posted on Facebook’s “USC Memes” page that he was proud of not voting in any of the SG elections he had been here for.

These people are members of Student Government, too. I subscribe to a representative theory of democracy, in which the people ultimately are the government and the people elect representatives to act in their interest. We are merely officers that were tasked with acting in the student body’s best interests—and bit by bit, we have.

This year in Student Government, the Senate passed a number of reforms to the Finance Codes that has opened up tens of thousands of dollars in student activity fees that are now going to more student organizations for more programming. Through legislation such as the receipt deadline and the redistribution fund, taking the student org budgeting process to its own online system, and the implementation of Treasurer Supil’s new initiative fund, Student Government has been able to do more with what it has.

Through the adept marketing skills of the Senate’s Safety and Transportation Committee, CarolinaCab has become, on the flip side, the most recognizable initiative that Student Government has launched in recent times. Started as a promise by former Vice President Taylor Cain to replace the floundering Cocky’s Caravan program, it was a team effort by a Safety and Transportation Committee chaired by then-Senator (Katie) Thompson and Secretary Tracy, who was then Ms. Thompson’s counterpart on Cabinet that set up the framework for Sen. Vanderlip and his committee to get the ball rolling. As reported Tuesday, CarolinaCab has served more students in a month than Cocky’s Caravan did in spring 2010. Honestly, Madame President, that’s $750 a night well spent.

Advances were also made in improving the advisement process. In the past year, Sen. Hendricks’ committee has worked with Secretary Kaczmarek and a number of contacts to convince academic colleges and departments to make the advisement process easier and eventually put it online. A number of academic departments and colleges have already followed suit, including the political science department just this week. To say that Student Government played no part in this process is preposterous.

Neither is this the end of the line. The Athletics Committee launched a viewing party for the away game at Georgia at the Russell House ballroom in September that attracted over 400 students and had the side effect of teaching freshmen about this University’s fan traditions. As a bit of a topping, the Gamecocks won that particular game.

A partnership between Sen. Mizzell’s Student Services Committee and Secretary Tracy to get information on a possible student services program turned the program into a reality late last semester, when this Senate approved the funding to test this project out. While there is much left to accomplish in this project, it has the right intentions. It is our job as citizens—and not just those in this room—to make sure the intentions in which Student Legal Services was started do not sour.

This is only a sampling of what this Senate has accomplished this year.

Despite all this, Student Government still battles the appearance of irrelevancy in the eyes of the student body. Go talk to any random student on campus. Chances are, they’ve bought into it. I once went to a student organization and made the mistake of asking what SG could do for them. The club’s vice president at the time told me that they did not need our help; that he often saw student government as another student organization, governing itself.

That same student was interviewed by the Daily Gamecock in an article published Tuesday in which he implied that Student Government was not a credible organization to run CarolinaCab, and that an University employee needed to be involved. The student involved also implied that C-Cab was the only direct program that Student Government conducts in a year.

Madame President, I believe that now is as good a time as any for a civics lesson.

How many times have I heard that refrain, “what has Student Government done for me?” How many times have you heard it in the past year, or two, or three? I have heard it once too many, and not enough of the other question.

The other question, which Dr. Martin Luther King once called “life’s most pressing question,” has been asked way too few times on this campus for my comfort. The other question, once famously asked by a President at his first inauguration, has often been sidestepped for unmitigated self-interest and an insatiable craving for immediate gratification.

The other question: “What are you doing for others?” “What can you do for your country?” “What can you do for the student body?”

The simplest thing any student could have done was vote in the student body elections and the runoffs this month. And although there were more runoff votes this year than there ever were, the general election left much to be desired. With a 10.9 percent turnout and one executive race going to a runoff thanks to a single vote, that election was a disgrace. No wonder people think we’re irrelevant—the vast majority of students cannot be bothered to even go on VIP and do something that lasts all of thirty seconds!

Citizenship on this campus is seriously in need of want, Madame President. And this is an issue that every person in this room Senator or not, incoming or outgoing, has a solemn duty to improve from this moment forward.

The Senate does more for the student body day in and day out than most students realize. In part, this is what Student Government does.

The officers of Student Government are here to watch the student body’s proverbial back. Who watches the watchmen, besides the Daily Gamecock? How about you! Take the initiative and walk into CLC one day when its officers are in. They’re more than happy to talk with you and it could more than likely lead to a code change, or a newsworthy resolution—all because someone dared to talk to Student Senate for once instead of complaining about how Student Government does nothing.

Here’s another idea: apply. Right now, Secretary Tracy—the president-elect—is accepting applications online for his Cabinet. If you believe strongly enough that there’s something that the student body should be doing but isn’t, the best way is to be in the room with the student body president when these policies get implemented in Cabinet meetings. He’ll be accepting and nominating people well into the fall, so please check out the Cabinet application on the SG website. Or, if you want to wait until April when I am sure a couple Senate seats in some of the more high-demand colleges will be open, apply for that too.

Madame President, I had to make that known. An organization limited both by the Board of Trustees and our own Constitution does not mean it is irrelevant. It means we are constitutionally limited as a student body, which means we must be diplomatic in our dealings with the administration and the board. Neither does that mean that we are their collective lapdog. Student Government officers will continue to act overtly and covertly to work in the students’ interests as long as we are in office, and then some.

Mme. President; Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to acknowledge all the Student Senators and its leadership who will not be returning to this body. Indeed, there are members who are either going to other positions within Student Government such as Sens. Hammonds, who is focusing on Pillars for Carolina, Sens. Gibson and Mizzell, who have won executive-branch positions or Senators who have chosen not to run for re-election to apply for the Presidential Cabinet.

I want to close all of the Senators who will not just be leaving Senate but will be leaving official Student Government after Spring Break. I’m talking not just about myself, but Senators like Joel Iliff, Matt Johns, Angel Miller, Breelyn Harmon, and Jason Barbour who have offered this past year of their lives in service to the student body, and like the Roman dictator and consul Cincinnatus once he had successfully defended Rome in the efficient manner that he was known for, freely given up the office and are either graduating or returning to their prior private lives, to further their education and possibly to lead students in different ways. Even the president of this body never expected to take up the office that she holds today. Three standing committee chairs from this Senate took over their positions from their predecessors when they either resigned or were promoted to other positions. As the saying goes, “we’ve done our bit for king and country.”

Although our official service on Student Government is coming to an end, I have no doubt that we will continue to work as active citizens in our student body community, and I hope that, in the seven weeks I have left as a student on this campus, to get students more involved in their campus.

And I hope you join me. It has been an unmitigated honor to serve as an official of Student Government this year, let alone as president pro tempore of the Student Senate. If I had another year, I’d take it, but I can’t.

I have to join President Wright, Treasurer Supil, Sens. Iliff and Johns, Ms. DeLoach, and Messrs. Strickland and Rashid Kazi at the graduation stage.

Thanks for the memories, Madame President. For the final time, I yield for questions.

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SG 2012: Executive Branch Endorsements

DISCLAIMER: These endorsements are mine alone. Student Government as an organization is non-partisan. Nor are these endorsements reflective of the Senate Rules or Safety & Transportation committees, the Senate writ large, the office of the Student Body Vice President (from where I claim my powers as President Pro Tem), the candidates discussed below or their campaigns. Neither should this in any way be construed as an endorsement by any student organization I am a member of or of my employers, the Kroger Co. and the South Carolina Democratic Party.

Now that that's over with. 

In the past couple of years, I’ve developed a set of rules governing how I support and endorse candidates for student body offices, i.e.: don’t endorse the vice president for president, back no one until the first day of the election, etc. This year’s election requires that all the rules go out the window. There’s a power structure building up in Student Government these days and its rise all but seems inevitable. This year, my endorsements will reflect who I believe will best temper that structure going forward in the executive branch.

By the way, we'll always be friends. This is business.

By the time you read this, I will have made these endorsements for SG office public this morning. As this election is weirdly more close-knit than the others I have covered in this blog in the past, I believe that I owe it to my readers, my Facebook friends, my Twitter followers, my friends and colleagues at Carolina and her student government, and the executive campaigns to explain how I came to the decisions I have made. 

So let's start with the obvious one. 

CHASE MIZZELL for Student Body Vice President

I once called Sen. Mizzell "the hardest working man in SG" on his birthday. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not hyperbole. Besides a resolution that he and I co-sponsored to green-light a new Student Health Center to replace the one behind the Russell House, he was the driving force behind the creation of a student legal services program here at Carolina.

"I once called [Chase] Mizzell 'the hardest working man in SG' on his birthday. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not hyperbole."

While this program needs serious scrutiny going forward both in its Senate-mandated review a year out and while implementing this program, this program is a needed ally for the vast majority of students who are increasingly finding themselves dealing with questionable landlords like former SC Attorney General Henry McMaster who just last month lost a case in the South Carolina Supreme Court over a city ordinance limiting the number of unrelated people in a single-family house to three. 

He is currently working on a petition drive to declare the USC campus a neighborhood association (mainly to permanently close Greene Street between Preston and the observatory) and a rideshare program with Sen. Ashley Farr--who is running for a full term as a Senator in the business school--and would continue with these efforts when he takes office in March. 

So although he's our only choice, he's not necessarily a bad one. 

COY GIBSON for Student Body Treasurer

DISCLAIMER: Yes, Gibson supported my bid for President Pro Tem. No, this isn't why I'm supporting him. Read on:

This one was also pretty obvious: this is the only candidate in this race with any practical experience with the SG finance codes. At all. I believe that in order to be student body treasurer, you need at least one of the following: 

1) Working knowledge of the Finance Codes

2) Working understanding of Student Organization Structure

If you at least have the second, you can learn the first on the job. Sen. Gibson became the Finance Committee chair straight out of Freshman Council--but as chair of the finance committee he learned not only how to navigate the system by which Student Government allocates student activity fees, he also learned how to deal with SO treasurers and executive boards with finesse. I wish this could have been more of a contest if, say, Sen. Mitchell Hammonds or Sen. Kevin Carr had run for this post alongside Gibson. 

"[A]s chair of the finance committee [Gibson] learned not only how to navigate the system by which Student Government allocates student activity fees, he also learned how to deal with [Student Organization] treasurers and executive boards with finesse." 

However, his opponent--Freshman Councillor Yousef Ibreak--is biting more than he can chew. While I applaud his campaign plank to once again put the SG and SO budgets on the Student Government web site (something past treasurers Ebbie Yazdani and Peter Shaeffing had done and something I wish Treasurer Emily Supil could have pursued despite our deplorable webmaster), with all due respect to Mr. Ibreak, under Sen. Gibson's leadership on the Finance Committee this Senate has funded 69 student organizations over $96,000 for this semester, and is currently revamping the Finance Codes so that SOs use more of their funding so that the student body president and treasurer can confidently make a case to the University administration to free up more SAFs for student organization use. 

It's like my endorsement of former Student Body President Ebbie Yazdani: do I vote for someone who's talking about doing something or do I vote for someone who is doing it? Coy Gibson is doing it already, and that's who's getting my vote. 

FOR STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT...

It's less obvious. All three candidates for SG President--SG Historian John Cuenin, SG Vice President Emily Saleeby, and Kenny Tracy, SG Secretary for Student Services have their strengths. Each have their weaknesses. Each have their own set of valid qualifications outside the constitutional ones for any of them to take office. 

The former, Mr. Cuenin, currently serves as historian to Student Government on SG President Joe Wright's staff. Prior to that, he served on Student Senate and eventually became President Pro Tem replacing the previous holder, Matt Ungar. A member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity since last fall, Cuenin is also an Eagle Scout. 

"The issue at hand in this SG election is the balance of power between the executive branch and the Student Senate." 

Vice President Saleeby, before she became vice president, was the first chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Powers and Responsibilities last spring. By the end of spring semester, then-Sen. Saleeby's committee had managed to do what other Senates had failed for seven years--field a full Student Senate. It was that day that she was elected President Pro Tem when the previous holder resigned from Senate to study abroad in Geneva. Four months later, in the aftermath of a round of resignations over various subjects such as class conflicts and an illegitimate SG report from the Vice President's office, Saleeby was sworn in as vice president, an office she's held since.

The latter, Mr. Tracy, currently serves as Secretary for Student Services under President Wright. Previously, Tracy served as Secretary for Safety and Transportation under former President Ebbie Yazdani. It was in the former position with a Safety and Transportation committee chaired by former Vice President Katie Thompson in 2011 that replaced the floundering Cocky's Caravan with a safe ride program called CarolinaCab. In late 2011, Tracy, along with Sen. Mizzell's committee, came up with the data that supported their case for a student legal services program on campus.

So each of them are capable leaders.

The issue at hand in this SG election is the balance of power between the executive branch and the Student Senate. Remember the “power structure” I mentioned in the beginning? It’s no mistake that Sens. Mizzell and Gibson are a part of it. The “inevitable” power structure I speak of consists of a class of Freshman Council alums from 2010/11 that have largely stuck together and have made for themselves an influential force in Student Government. How influential? Some of their members make a solid majority on Rules Committee. Are they malevolent? No, but if left to their own devices the level of debate in Student Government may deteriorate even more than it already has. This is why the student body president must stay above the fray—and if they do appoint students within this structure, they do so on the student’s own merits.

I’ve no problem endorsing Gibson because the SG Constitution and the Finance Codes all but make the treasury independent of the rest of the executive branch. 

I believe in executive and legislative independence. I see Mr. Tracy's advisers and I am reminded of a bloc of student senators in Rules Committee that could, if they wanted to, move or decline to approve anything to the floor without any useful opposition. Not to say that the senators on Rules Committee are power-hungry or willing to shut out upperclassman voices. They're not a malignant voting bloc, but let's consider the worst-case scenario here. 

"My fear here is...that [Kenny] Tracy and [Chase] Mizzell work out too well."

My fear here is not that Tracy doesn't work well with Mizzell; it's that Tracy and Mizzell work out too well. I believe that the Senate must consider alternatives even if you believe to your core that your course is the best. I'm not looking forward to leaving behind a Student Government that could potentially steamroll opposition voices even within it—not that Tracy nor Mizzell would, but I’m not willing to take the chance. I believe that a Tracy administration coupled with Mizzell empowered with ultimately unilateral power for Rules Committee assignments does not bode well for substantive, constructive debate in Student Government. This is why I’m bucking the insider trend and have chosen not to endorse Mr. Tracy.

Speaking of opposition, that brings me to Mr. Cuenin. I believe that his campaign is smothering a wet blanket all over Student Government. His campaign is predicated on the belief that Student Government has not made a difference in students' Carolina experience before. CarolinaCab sure did. The iPad Checkout program is a blockbuster, even as we speak. It was a SG bill that led to the 25-foot smoking ban in the late 2000s. And as for a recent contention that a Cuenin presidency would "help fight discrimination" on campus, I'll point out that one outpost on one of those fronts--the LGBT Resource Center--is a recent SG initiative. Should more be done? Absolutely. However, to say that SG isn't doing anything for students is conceited at best. I stated this before, and I will again: SG has indeed affected students; it's not in monumental ways but in ways behind the scenes that end up changing this University for the better.

However, there is one point of opposition that I believe is well-founded: Cuenin’s and Tracy’s stated positions against the University possibly charging students up-front for student tickets, something that was proposed by the Student Ticketing Commission last semester. Carolina and Vanderbilt are the only two schools in the SEC (including Missouri and Texas A&M) that do not charge students for tickets. It has been a selling point for our incoming freshmen for years. 

"While [John] Cuenin’s campaign is just as concerned about the balance of power as I am, I disagree that stonewalling [Chase] Mizzell…is the solution…”

If we gave up that selling point, our student fan base may start to deteriorate. As for me, student tickets cannot be charged a price tag without cause. Unless the funds are going to Student Government for allocation or can demonstrate an immediate need to charge the student body collectively an extra $420,000 a football season for student tickets, it's a horrible idea that will face backlash no matter who is elected on February 15th.

Back to the point I was making, Mr. Cuenin is a contrarian. His campaign has admitted to me that they're running him partly to put up a running resistance to Mr. Mizzell. I repeat: we need someone who can stand on his or her own, not someone who will "just say no" to Chase Mizzell. His plans need tweaking and review, not overbearing resistance at every turn.

While Cuenin’s campaign is just as concerned about the balance of power as I am, I disagree that stonewalling Mr. Mizzell—undoubtedly the public face of the aforementioned power structure come March—is the solution to what faces SG going forward.

Now, Vice President Saleeby. Her campaign, at the moment, promises "greater student engagement, improved student service systems and other initiatives," and longer-term, multi-year projects "to improve the University's future." To be objective, if I were determining this from published platforms, neither she nor Cuenin would be in contention. To be fair, Tracy's promises re: transfer students, multicultural affairs, and academic advisement are just as vague. Luckily for the candidates, my deal maker is not published platforms; it's how they'd run the government in regards to the legislative branch.

“From the day that the previous vice president and her legislative staff abruptly resigned…Vice President [Emily] Saleeby…had to start from scratch. No president pro tem. No chief of staff. No clerk. Yet.”

From the day that the previous vice president and her legislative staff abruptly resigned from Student Government leaving a completely bare office for her in every sense of the word, Vice President Saleeby, possibly the youngest student body VP in modern University history at 19, had to start from scratch. No president pro tem. No chief of staff. No clerk. Yet. The entire Senate dazed and confused. However, Saleeby pulled it off. As vice president, Saleeby made the Senate reporting forms easier to edit so that people taking notes at these meetings could e-mail them faster. This lead to Senators using less time writing notes and freeing up more time to lead. In tandem, Saleeby and I have improved relations with not only the administrative brass and the Board of Trustees but also the faculty through the Faculty Senate—but I’ll credit the Vice President here. 

If a President Saleeby runs the executive branch as fairly and with as much independent thought as she did when she was on Rules Committee as a committee chair, then as the chair, and now as vice president, I think this University will do fine. While she and I have not agreed on everything that we've worked on together as vice president and president pro tem, I have come to hold the vice president in high regard. This is a woman who is not afraid to say what she believes, and if she can stand up to me and/or her legislative staff when the need comes up, I have no problem with Saleeby standing up for us when speaking to the Board of Trustees.

Let's just put up the photo:

EMILY SALEEBY for Student Body President

With that said, I implore Saleeby to publish her campaign platform with all available haste. Staying the course is admirable, but I believe it is time that the student body knows what you mean by "improved student services" and "longer-term projects." They will be asking this at the debate and on the campaign trail, andthe more Saleeby is out there elaborating her vision to “advance Carolina,” the better off her campaign—let alone the student body—will be.

Emily Saleeby and Coy Gibson can give presumed Vice President Chase Mizzell the balance Student Government needs in the Executive Branch. While neither will dismiss the other two out of hand, they are hard-working people willing to think for themselves and act on behalf of the Carolina community. 

I ask only one thing: don't let me down.

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"In the past couple of years, I've developed a set of rules governing how I support and endorse candidates for student body offices...[t]his year's election requires that all the rules go out the window."

A snippet from my SG 2012 executive branch endorsements

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The Story Behind the Tigerburn

For those who don't know already, there is a deep sense of (I can't say rivalry, more like hatred) between THE University OF South Carolina and the other university in South Carolina that calls itself Clemson. (Yes, I'm biased. I do not care.) This dates all the way to the very founding of that other university, which was so controversial that South Carolina's lieutenant governor at the time cast the deciding vote in the South Carolina Senate to accept Thomas Clemson's estate--which would end up becoming Clemson.

The first Tigerburn occurred in 1902. It began when an English professor at South Carolina College (it would become USC again six years later) drew a "transparency" (a type of poster) of a gamecock riding a tiger after the newly-minted Gamecocks defeated Clemson College 12-6. 

Following that game, the students at South Carolina received the poster from this professor (Horton Colcock) and the students started carrying it around town, celebrating their first-ever win over Clemson. 

Per usual, Clemson overreacted. First, the cadets (Clemson at the time was a military school) attacked SC College students over that Gamecock poster in at least two different incidents, which included the destruction of the original poster. Then, the commandant of the Clemson Corps of Cadets (likely similar to a dean) all but threatened South Carolina's assistant coach against showing the poster at the annual parade, then attempted to get Columbia's police chief on his side. The police chief asked the South Carolina coach to consider not marching with it, which he considered before telling SC's students that they had to, unless they wanted to "reward the whining, political maneuverings, threats, and violence against them" by Clemson and its student body (quote from Bryan Barley) 

Sure enough, Carolina's students marched in that parade with that poster. And true to form, Clemson overreacted again. With a cry to "behave like soldiers...while on duty," the entire Clemson Corps of Cadets (read, the entire student body) marched on the Horseshoe with their bayonets and swords and sabers. Meanwhile, about 50 South Carolina students (including the man McKissick Museum would be named after) barricaded the Horseshoe, arming up for a fight. (This was before gun-free school zones, FYI.)

It took that South Carolina assistant coach to get in between these parties to suggest a committee to deal with their differences. That committee had South Carolina agree to burn the poster (easily reproduced, just look above) and for Clemson to cheer Carolina on their victory. With that, the fight was diffused. 

This incident was so controversial that South Carolina and Clemson did not play each other again until 1908. It remains the third-longest rivalry in college football; it is passion fused with overreaction wrapped in Tillman-esque politics. 

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A Disclaimer

I know that in the past that I have written some provocative and controversial things about Student Government both before and a little since I joined SG; the last of which being in August. As you know, I blog here once in a blue moon, and my posting here and on other social media sites have been a little restrained lately. 

I want any casual readers to know that this blog, while being one of a student in SG is not intended to reflect on the organization--or any other I may happen to be in. 

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SG-UA's Canned Creations entry from earlier this week.

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Some of what's been going on this semester, and why I haven't been posting much.

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Take heart, U.S. Doctor Who fans...the longest-running science fiction TV series in world history is returning to TV screens across the English-speaking world this Saturday in "Let's Kill Hitler." This is going to be interesting.

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One of my favorite organizations, the USC College Democrats, a chapter of the College Democrats of America (the official student wing of the national Democratic Party) is having an unofficial meetup tonight at 7:30 at RH 205 to do things such as write a new constitution, elect a new treasurer, and prepare for next Wednesday's Student Organization Fair. If you want to take part in an SO that's going places, this is one place you should start. 

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Visit Original Link

With apologies to Twisted Sisters after Governor Haley overused it in her campaign, I needed a few laughs about this situation after going after SG's executive branch for skirting its own codes.

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IFC Right to Raise Questions; SG Execs Wrong to Skirt Codes

I'm not Greek, I know. Why I give two cents:

SG Legislative Codes 201.20(A,B): "The purpose of a Student Senator is [t]o represent his or her constituents to the best of his or her ability, while acting in their best interests [and] to protect the rights of all students of the University, including the rights of individuals."

The big story this morning? This: a statement released by SG Vice President Katie Thompson (full disclosure: she is Greek herself) along with her chief of staff Mitchell Jackson and IFC/NPC Affairs Secretary Dane O'Neill stating in the first sentence that Student Government (presumably the Executive Branch) formed a Greek Reform Board "late last semester" to address "...issues plaguing the Greek system." The statement goes on to pile on a world of hurt on the fact that Greek students and organizations are tried outside the Student Code of Conduct in a specially-designed system, the actions of the Office of Greek Life, and the office itself in calling for an audit of the office. 

As for suspending the IFC (the action by the University that resulted in ending fraternity rush), that's a problem in my book. I tend to believe that we as students are entitled to certain rights, including the right to govern one's own affairs. Besides, this opens up a Pandora's box of sorts when it comes to things like this:

Would the University suspend the Residence Hall Association if the University discovered widespread alcohol use at one-third of its residence halls? Would itsuspend the activities of all political groups if, say, the membership of the College Democrats, Obama for America (at USC, the two are separate organizations), Gamecocks for Liberty, and the College Republicans were seen on Pub Politics knocking down a few lagers...each? Would the University dissolve Student Government if a third of the freshman and sophomore classes were found drinking in Five Points?

"What? A third of them have been drinking? Cancel the field study; back to campus."

"[The Office of Greek Life] draws its authority to try Greek students in a separate judicial system not subject to the same safeguards relating to accountability and rights found in the normal Student Conduct Code. As individuals and organizations, Greeks are singled out specifically in a way that hardly seems appropriate or fair."

--IFC Statement released by the VP's office

Then there's the separate judicial system thing. If this were, say, seniors or Democrats or black students being subject to a different standard than the rest of the student body, I'd be hot too. While I need to research that section of the Student Conduct Code, it's becoming quite clear that a double standard is in place that benefits no student that attends this University, and it should stop. 

There's also a few things that Student Government dropped the ball on. This year, I have observed from the Executive Branch a level of recklessness or disregard for the SG codes that govern the creation and governance of SG's myriad boards, initiatives, and projects as explained in Executive Department Code 600.10. 

Student Affairs VP Jerry Brewer meets the press Friday following the suspension of fraternity rush earlier last week. 

"The President of the Student Body may propose the creation of a Student Government Board, Initiative, or Project (hereafter referred to as a 'board') to the Senate, which must codify such in these codes. The Senate must also issue a Charter to such an entity, to further define its governance. Such Charters shall be placed as appendices to these codes...."

--Student Government Codes, Sec. 600.10

Carolina Cab being overseen directly by its constituent committee and constituent Cabinet secretary. (Full disclosure: I sit on that constituent committee.) A proposed series of informal socials for student organization leaders entirely planned by the Executive Branch without formal approval by the Senate. And now a series of hearings on the state of the Greek community that was not authorized by (at least the current) Senate.

The Executive Branch is playing fast and loose with the codes that govern how we govern ourselves. If we're supposed to be standing up for the rights of the Greek community to some autonomy, the fact that we're turning a blind eye to our own system is baffling.

Not only are these unitary actions undermining the authority of the Senate (and thus the student body as a whole), but they threaten the moral resolve and imperative of Student Government to act in the students' interest. Does President Wright (or the Cabinet, for that matter) not trust the members of the Senate--some of which supported both he and Vice President Thompson just last semester in the last election--to take action on behalf of the student body, or to a smaller extent, to defend the rights of their fellow students? 

I call on President Wright to immediately call off these meetings until Student Senate can codify a Greek Reform Board to investigate the Greek system and the Office of Greek Life under the SG Department of Greek Affairs. Once we've passed the formalities, things can get cracking in a couple of weeks.

Let's not skirt the rules in our zeal to defend these men's rights. Let's show this University what student self-governance can do and let's do this right. 

UPDATE (10:33 AM): The first of these forums are today at 4 PM. At this point, SG should simply remove its participation in these proceedings until Senate can set it up formally.

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Queen Elizabeth II puts some of that World War II service to use against the rioters. Ha!

Photo Credit: Nick Hewlett, at parody account @Queen_UK's Facebook page

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A little corny; but here's what the University's been up to this past year if you've forgotten already. 

Credit: My Carolina Alumni Association; Dinobrite Productions

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Visit Original Link

Song of the Day is back! 

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"The air and fan is on and I'm still hot! :-("

Claflin University senior Linsley Thompson (@TheePinkLady)