So there I was, reconsidering my life decisions at a 7 a.m. Senate Judiciary Committee meeting when the topic of blue lights came up. There was a resolution, specifically a “Resolution Recommending Installation of Emergency Blue Light Phones Along and Adjacent to Fraternity Drive.” Apparently, there are not many blue lights around Fraternity Row, which is slightly concerning because we all know what can happen around there.
Something that came up in the proceedings was the effort to get a new blue light in the Graham Area. The committee asked if the authors had met with Student Body Treasurer-elect, Santiago Gutierrez, and former Graham Area senator, Mackintosh Joachim, to talk about the resolution. That irked me because it reminded me of a past incident last month.
I take real issue with some of the people in SG sometimes. A lot of them are clueless sheep, but calling them just “sheep” would be awfully generous. These people just swallow up whatever talking points or “facts” from their superiors they’ve been given and then spew them out without taking some time for fact-checking or critical thought. Some other people in SG are just purely malicious, concocting lies for political gain. The common issue for me and other honest folk is trying to tell the clueless people spreading lies apart from the malicious people creating them, because some of these malicious people are pretty clueless, too.
Two good examples of this took place during the last election season.
During the presidential debate, Student Body President-elect Michael Murphy attacked my involvement in street lighting around Infinity Hall using what appeared to be a talking point from current Student Body President Ian Green: “My opponent said he did the lights at Infinity Hall, but in fact that is a lie. Former Impact Student Body President Susan Webster did that.”
Little did Murphy know that because Green had already spilled the beans on this in his poorly-written letter to the editor, I had already contacted the City of Gainesville and confirmed I was indeed the individual responsible for requesting the new lighting around Infinity Hall. I had the email printed out and everything, but Murphy decided to double down on his lie when faced with conflicting evidence. Or was it a lie? A lie hints at intentional deception, but I’m pretty sure Murphy, and possibly also Green, were clueless.
Also surfacing in the debate was the topic of blue lights. Murphy took the time to attack Joachim, saying, “Mack’s key accomplishments that he tells on the campaign trail are actually projects that were completed by the Impact Party. Not only was an emergency blue light in Graham Hall brought to campus by our party, but it was completed by someone on this stage, Mack’s opponent, Santiago, who actually worked with other Impact members and agency heads for months on this project, and actually filled out the SAR to secure funding.”
But did that actually happen? According to emails derived from a public records request, Gutierrez’s involvement appears to be limited to solely the Student Activity Request (SAR), essentially the funding form. Amusingly, Gutierrez initially put down the incorrect vendor within the request, a mistake that was pointed out by a housing official and was later corrected. The submitted project request to the UF Planning, Design and Construction office lists the SG finance manager, Gary Bryant, as the fiscal contact instead of Gutierrez, which, to me, only further highlights how unimportant Gutierrez was to the actual project.
To easily figure out who was really behind the blue lights effort, just consider the intended location of the blue lights: Graham Hall, the area which Joachim represented. Joachim also has provided me with emails that detail his role in making the project a reality.
Now I suppose the majority party fools realized this wasn’t a particularly sustainable lie, so they softened up on it. Two days after the debate, the SG Facebook page posted a graphic announcing the incoming blue lights. It read: “Big thanks to Santiago Gutierrez and Mackintosh Joachim for their hard work on this project.”
Zachariah Chou is a UF political science junior and Murphree Area senator. His column appears on Fridays.
