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.
I am very irritated Lindsay would write a letter like this, especially after having taken a class with her and carrying on many honest discussions about Student Government.
She made it seem as though some loyal Unite Party volunteer convinced her to join the cause, but this is far from the case.
Lindsay Davis, or more appropriately in this setting, Director Davis, is the Unite Party and President Charles’ director of the Community Political Affairs Cabinet. This is like pretending a member of Obama’s cabinet was somehow convinced by a volunteer to vote Democratic and wrote into the New York Times to describe this experience.
It’s ridiculous at face value. Any letter I ever wrote regarding SG had full disclosure, stating I was the Senate Minority Leader.
When Unite Party appointees, especially the principal officer of the Community Political Affairs Cabinet, write in letters pretending they are somehow outside of SG, it is insulting to the intelligence of the entire Student Body.
That they are willing to so brazenly lie (or lie by omission) about their role in SG shows they care more about winning and staying in power than they do about governance or the students. Having had many conversations with Unite Party operatives and understanding their internal structure, I’m relatively sure Director Davis didn’t, in fact, write this letter herself, but that it was instead produced by someone in her media department.
However, this doesn’t change the fact that she put her name on it, something I am extremely upset about. I don’t understand why the Unite Party bothered to do this, as they face no real opposition party like they did with the Student Alliance. I predict Unite will win no fewer than 45 out of the 50 seats up for election this fall, despite The Alligator’s endorsement of the Independents.
Regardless of my feelings about the election or the actions of Director Davis, the students deserve to know when a letter supposedly written by an SG outsider was in fact written (or at least submitted) by one of SG’s top-ranking officials. Many parties and groups are guilty of this, but never in so brazen a manner as this.
The opinions page should be a forum for the exchange of stances and ideas, not a creative writing journal.
Despite the easily predictable outcome of this election, in which Unite will maintain its supermajority in the Senate and continue to control the three branches of SG, students and readers need to learn moral conduct is important.
The lying and deception we see in real government starts because people think it’s okay to do so here, stepping onto the slippery slope.
For this reason, and hopefully so Ms. Davis can learn from her mistakes, it is imperative that all the facts come to light.
Jonathan Ossip is the former Student Senate minority leader.
