By now, you've probably heard about the Student Government elections scandal that I've come to call "votergate."
In summer of 2008, I walked into my first Senate meeting. Fresh out of high school, I thought I had found a good place to get involved. What I found instead was a disaster.
I have attempted, after my resignation, to keep distance from this election, especially because, with the demise of Student Alliance, I don’t really have much of a dog in this race. However, a letter in Monday’s Alligator was so misleading, I had to say something.
In Tuesday’s Alligator, the Editorial Board took a strong stance in favor of adding more Gainesville utility providers, finally bringing the free market to our power and water and working to stop the city-controlled socialists at GRU. Frankly, I couldn’t agree more.
On March 4, the Alligator Editorial Board commented on what they called the Unite Party’s “naughty audio.” However, the editorial and the administration’s silence on this issue reveal the true problem in Student Government: apathy.
I hope that I am joined by the entire university community in condemning the most recent incident of hate speech on our campus. For those of you who do not know, fliers were distributed across campus and around Gainesville that said, “Student Alliance party is the Nazi Party,” printing our logo and a swastika with an equal sign between them.
In Friday’s Alligator, the Unite Party attacked the Student Alliance party for something they did not do. Let me be perfectly clear: The Student Alliance party did not participate in last week’s fliering with anti-Unite Party messages, and we don’t condone such activities.
Clarification: This is a response to a letter that was originally attributed to UF student Josh Winegar. Winegar informed the Alligator that he believes the letters were sent falsely under his name by members of the Unite Party, who currently hold the Student Government majority. The Alligator does not currently know the identity of the senders.
In Friday's edition of the Alligator, Student Body Treasurer Maryam Laguna wrote that after a temporary gap in delivery, The New York Times would be restored to newspaper boxes on campus starting Monday. However, what she neglected to mention is that despite the temporary return of the Times, the paper's readership program still has been cut from the next proposed Student Government budget.
Tuesday was a sad day for democracy within UF Student Government. In that night's meeting, the Student Senate voted to keep giving top SG officials perks that are out of reach for ordinary students. They also illegally moved several powers of the Senate to the Unite-controlled executive branch, essentially creating the new office of Student Body Dictator.
Solutions by The State News
