Misconceptions
I am tempted to respond to the questionable journalistic integrity expressed by Mr. Giovannetti in last issue’s “commentary” of his council of student representatives.
Instead, however, I will respond to what seems to be a commonly believed urban legend amongst certain students and student media.
The CSU council is not an aristocracy of shady “interests;” it is a democratically elected body of students. Everyone who sacrifices their time to sit around council carries the weight of at least 900 students who designated them as representatives.
These councillors do their best to determine the will of the students. This is a very difficult thing to do and I think that all councillors would agree that while, they are not perfect, they are always open to suggestions, requests and (polite and constructive) demands.
When the student councillors reacted last week to accusations of apathy, their reaction was warranted—they had done their duty at the last meeting by creating a mobilization committee, a committee which has been tremendously successful in the work that it was tasked to do.
The criticism expressed at the end of a long and unnecessarily hostile meeting was not in the spirit of inclusiveness of the mobilization committee; they recognized this and apologized. We are all in this together and every councillor wants what’s best for the students with no hidden agendas.Don’t believe us? Why not talk to us before banishing our members to the political wilderness?
—Menachem Freedman,
CSU Councillor Arts & Science
This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 25, published March 8, 2011.
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