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update
There was a meeting of the current Senate to discuss the issues last Tuesday. I couldn't go because of class and other obligations, but one of my co-workers went and she's one of the people that were elected recently.
Basically what happened was a lot of name-calling (i.e. two fraternities were directly named as "rapists of women of color," although in their years on campus, there are no known sexual allegations involving either fraternity; the term "cracker" was also excessively used, I'm told), arguing, etc. In the end, the Senate decided that they will hold elections again (with PAPER ballots, thank goodness), but will not allow anyone else to run as an official candidate. This doesn't mean that the people that ran as a slate and were rightfully elected will get elected again, however. There is the option of write-in voting, and a student can write-in as many candidates as they want, as long as no more votes are cast than what they are alloted (Humanities majors can vote or write-in up to 13 candidates, Science majors are 4 (i believe), and Engineering majors are 2). So if these organizations are determined enough, they could have a majority for their own write-in candidates.
Amongst the other demands of these organizations at the meeting were: the disbanding of the UCR Police Department, the disbanding of the Office of Student Judicial Affairs (mainly deals with academic dishonesty issues), and the removal of specific administrators in the Gender Education and Resource Services office, Office of Student Judicial Affairs, and Associated Students.
The whole issue is getting out of hand and is turning into a race problem. I'm really very bothered still by the racial slur that has been used, and the fact that these people are completely stereotyping and overgeneralizing about Greeks. One of the members of this organization flatly told a black member of an IFC fraternity that was at the meeting that he should "get out while he can" and shouldn't be part of a "white-bred organization." Why must everything be turned into a race issue????
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