Jono Zeidan '12 elected SGA president

Hahaha - YOU helped vote these people in!!! Even if they're the only candidate for their positions, there's always that box that says, "No Confidence". And if you didn't vote then you still can't complain haha because you said nothing to the hundreds who DID vote. So blame the apathy of the student body, not the students who give up their time to try and make Skidmore a better place.

Read the Senate minutes about the sexual misconduct policy. Other than Jono's relevant quips about feeling up a girl, the majority of SGA members demonstrated that they honestly have no clue what's going on. The biggest reason for students to not get involved in SGA simply has to do with the prevailing mindset within it. Most of the kids don't party, let alone do drugs, and the makeup doesn't reflect the student body's best interest. Explain to me how someone that doesn't go out should have any voice in our alcohol policy on campus. For those of us concerned with moving forward with our lives and dealing with issues that actually do impact our lives and the world, the SGA is the last place to turn to.

As exhausting as it is to be a candidate, RUNNING elections requires ten times the effort. Cutting off a speech or accidentally forgetting the Q&A order? There's only so much a girl can do. Give Jenny a break. She made an honest mistake.

I, too, got the "wrap it up" motion; I, too, got applause from certain parts of the audience and not others; I, too, got cut off by mistake. And I, too, lost a contested election. It happens. Every candidate experienced the same uniform process.

In regards to students of color doing badly in the election, Donald was running against an established member of SGA with Executive Committee experience and three years on Senate. She had an established voting block and she has been through the elections process several times. Arguably, being a relatively new entity who has never posed a VP campaign put him at a disadvantage. In contrast, several candidates of color with extensive experience in the elections process and SGA were elected as VPs; they were elected not on the basis of their race, but the expertise that they will bring to the position.

Senate and especially Ex-Comm has been running Campus Climate discussions, panels, and lectures all year. These events are extremely time consuming; believe me when I say that SGA would not be planning them if they did not think that it was for the benefit of the community at large. They are not doing it for to receive accolade, to keep up appearances, or to put another line in their resume; Ex-comm and Senate spend countless hours on these talks because they truly believe they are necessary. They do it because they truly do care. You are free to debate whether or not student-run discussions are effective, but SGA's intent is completely genuine.

Just a quick comment to Teshika on the formality of the senate:
When I ran in a contested election at the beginning of the year and was elected by an overwhelming vote, I felt a pride that I had never had before. I'd been in high school elections where I never got a chance to be in a position to make a difference due not being one of the "popular kids". But when I saw all the people I didn't know who believed in me to make a difference, I felt obligated to take up my SGA position with pride and dedication. Teshika, you say that "You're still someone outside of that role", but I would argue that an SGA member should never stop being that role. That role is of a skidmore student who takes pride in their school, respects the ideas and ideals of their peers, and is a representative of their college and fellow student (as should we all be at times). I dedicate myself to SGA not because, say, I love it more than acting. I don't, I would love to act if I had time, but I dedicate myself to SGA because I can make a difference, I can be an influence, I can promote change where I need to see it happen, and all at the same time being one of the voices of change at Skidmore college. So please excuse us if we seem a little formal for you, but we are an organization of the student body. We read a convocation every night to open Senate. To give you a piece, it ends with "We are the representatives of the student body and to them we give our service."
Please come to speech night wednesday, and help look for the next voices of the student body.

Leland Martin '14

What we're talking about is a much more subtle issue in the ways in which the discourse surrounding this election showcased the racial divisions on our campus. I wish SkidTV had panned over the crowd at some point so I could post this video here to show what was going on in that room. It was a truly disheartening image of two Skidmores: one made up of white students, promoting their candidates, and one made up of students of color, promoting theirs.

Think about that. As someone who cares deeply about the school I attend, I don't want to attend a college that looks like that. And that's what this conversation's about.

SGA elections are always popularity contests. The most popular person wins. That's not right or good-and it would make for a much better topic of conversation than "oh skidmore hates Black people"-but it's the way it is. If a white person had lost, do you think they would be saying "RACISM"? NO. Because it's not ABOUT race, it's about stupid things like who has the most friends or who's hooked up with half the lacrosse team.

I can't wait for this trigger reaction racism b.s. to just die down already so we can get back to remembering that we're a school for shallow spoiled kids in $100 flannel who for all our messed up faults (and there are a LOT) are NOT racist.

To the rest of Teshika's comment, I give a resounding hear hear. (Or a knock on the desk, in Ladd 307 terms.) Given my own preference for anonymity, I don't want to be someone who calls people out by name, but the entire environment of Speech Night was absolutely white, established members of SGA on one side of the room (with a couple exceptions) and students of color on the other. One side would cheer for one candidate, and the other side would cheer for the other. There'd be a slip-up, caused by illness or other factors, and one side of the room would boo, while the other side shushed them. It wasn't along the lines of who's involved in SGA, as SuLin correctly pointed out, but I don't know if that makes it better, since that means that it was absolutely based on race.

For anyone to say that race wasn't a factor in that room, I say that you are being willfully blind and refusing to confront a real divide on campus when it's occurring in your backyard. This was a moment that should have been the campus coming together, a celebration of an election that, for once, actually represented our diverse community, and it wasn't. I don't know if I can say that it's one side's fault or another's, but I can say that people saying that race wasn't a factor are absolutely exacerbating the problem.

I just wanted to point out that the quotes by both Jono and I were both pretty far off the mark. I'm glad to see that people are reading and concerned about the issue, but I wouldn't form an opinion about Jono especially based on what is printed above. What was actually said was much more nuanced and in depth than it appears here. If this is a discussion you would actually like to have in a forum that is more appropriate than the comment box on a Skidnews article please do email someone, come to senate as Sulin said or drop by the office. I and the rest of executive committee would genuinely appreciate your input. Thanks.

Alex
abland@skidmore.edu