Elections fiasco- bias against Greeks

[gphiangel624]

As a start, so everyone knows what has happened recently, 11 members of IFC and NPC orgs ran for the ASUCR senate (student gov't) and they all won, according to all rules and regulations. Recently, there has been quite a fiasco with the elections results.

http://www.highlander.ucr.edu/article.php?artnum=2057

The editors of the Highlander newspaper wrote this in response to the May 1 Senate meeting. Read further down if you want to see some of the "wonderful" things that were said of the Greek community and of a particular race.

http://www.highlander.ucr.edu/article.php?artnum=2063

At that May 1 meeting, there were some demands made by two campus organizations who have consistently been outright hateful to the Greek organizations on campus (not just IFC and Panhellenic, but to all multi-cultural and honors society Greek-letter orgs as well). Although I do not have with me the minutes from the meeting (they're at home- I'll edit later), some of these words are stuck in my head. Amongst these demands, statements were made that directly denounced all members of the Greek community, referring to Greeks as "Crackers" for the white members and "Cracker sympathizers" for the non-white members. Statements were also made that members of the Greek community that serve on the Senate shall not ever hold an office because they are "unable to meet the needs of colored people."

I am so hurt and offended by these words, especially the use of a racially derogative term that, if I used something similar against a person of another race or ethnicity, would get kicked out of school for. Why can't people realize that not everything is a color/background/race/ethnicity issue> It's just a bunch of students who are trying to help out other students on campus that voted to get those individuals elected! I'm so bothered right now... I hate feeling like I'm a bad person and being generalized against just because of my skin color or my organization affiliation.

[LXAAlum]

Pages cannot be displayed.

Can you reverify the links?

[texas*princess]

First of all, I'm so sorry you are having to deal with this on your campus.. this is so unpleasant I hope you can feel better soon

My .02 on the issue:

1. If you're going to design an online voting system (or online anything for that matter) security should ALWAYS be thought of.

The weak-kneed senate quickly agreed, despite the fact that the results for both the CHASS and the CNAS were unaffected by the hackers and that a new election would benefit these activists who chose not to run for senate the first time around.

2. The senate was wrong to hold a new election just because some people decided after the fact they wanted to run and were upset at the outcome. Those election outcomes were unaffected by the hacker, so they are going to go back just to please a handful of students?

gphiangel, if the two organizations that were present at the meeting used words like "Crackers" and "cracker sympathizers" I'm actually surprised the senate took them seriously


3. At the end of the article it talks about how he/she feels the current leaders are incompetent, etc. and that it's time for a long-awaited change in leadership. Is the author talking about Greeks here???



If s/he is, what they need to understand is that on most campuses (can't really speak for the campus in question, but in my own experiences) Greeks make up a HUGE chuck of campus leaders... I can't speak for every Greek, but I know several who are active in numerous organizations, hold Student Government offices, and positions within the University such as Orientation Leaders, Ambassadors, etc.

[KillarneyRose]

What is a "Cracker"?

[PSK480]

Killarney Rose: "Cracker" is a racial slur at the caucasian race. I guess to some people since Saltines are white it fits. I personally find the term as offensive as the "N" word

[Tom Earp]

psk is this like a corn bread redneck?? Hell, never knowed what cracker ment!

S S Check the above site a came up! What a jelly bean mish mash of brilliant students and Admin. who are oblivious to what is rally going on!

What happened if they voted on paper ballots, well, stuff the ballot box I suppose. Ah, anint modern tech. just F**king Gag-tastic.

Sheet, Polotics are getting worse on campus than any State Capitol or Wash. DA SEE that I can see.!

A very sad state of affairs

Thank god I am in the real world where all people are asswholes for the most part and more dangerous than an Asp! Asp, did you ask, no, ask Cleo!

[PSK480]

Tom: "Cracker" is just a general racial slur against all caucasians, like when a white supremecist uses the "N" word, or referes to a Mexican or a member of the Arab culture with a slur. I may have been exposed to it more coming from a more urban setting and going to a high school of about 3:2 ratio of minorities to whites. It was used more in a joking manner but can also be used in a truely demeaning hatefull manner.

UCR might be a little big for this idea but I know it works for smaller schools like mine. For a whole week, during the days, senators and other volunteers have a table set up, it rotates to different locations at different times. They do voting this way. You show up they take your name cross it off their master list of all enrolled students and you do your vote by scan-tron sheet. Hard to cheat or stuff the box in this election. Check ID cards and you'll know if someone votes twice. To me it sounds like each college in the University has it's own election so that should make location even easier. Just an idea, may work, may not work.

[Tom Earp]

Well, why does not every one fly to Florida to vote for anythig?

Ah, there was a little tounge and cheek in last post!



" I am not Crazy, I am Insane"!!!!

[moe.ron]

try getting an outside observer. my old school at, i think, kpmg to verify that the voting was fair. also an official from the firm was with the balot box at all time and only he has the key to it. a little expensive, but worth it. the online thing is also good, again have an outside obersver to varify the outcome.

[gphiangel624]

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????