| Found from another site
at least now I know why I did not received my position in the USG
RACISM AT STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY
By: Publius (AverageGuyAtStony@yahoo.com or AIM: StonyAverageGuy)
Among all schools in the East Coast, Stony Brook University has the largest Asian and Asian American population on campus; in both number and percentage of the total number of students enrolled. SBU is also one of the most diverse schools in the nation, in terms of all ethnicities present on campus. Knowing these facts, it is only natural to assume that our school would promote democratic and multi-cultural experiences for students. However, such assumption is simply mistaken; unfortunately.
Recent controversial incidents within Undergraduate Student Government have gone beyond the usual incompetent-student-activity-fee-abusers screwing up their jobs. People have been speculating a rumor that, a "racial slur" was used against Asian American during the alleged "illegal grievance meeting" after USG election. The fact is, this rumor is very true; many USG senators, Executive Council member Esam, Judiciary member Artie, election board chair Leighton, and Eric, a non-student paid by NYPIRG have all witnessed such racist act. Yet, nothing was done nor any word was even said by the board in charge of the grievance meeting on . Do you think it was just a simple mistake that racial bias was promoted by silence? Let’s trace back a bit.
In the beginning of Fall 2004, I attended many clubs to meet freshmen who might have been interested to be involved in student government. My buddies and I interviewed many individuals new to SBU, and attempted to advocate activism on campus. A shocking discovery was made when I interviewed an Asian American student who was in the EOP program. When I asked her if she would run in the Freshmen Representative, her reply was: "I can’t, I’m in EOP, ‘we?have already decided who will run? Who exactly is ‘we?in this context? Do EOP students come together and have their own little election before the real USG election occurs? Once a person has won the EOP election, is no one else from EOP allowed to run in student government? Can people with passion and will to make changes for the better no longer run for an office if they’re in EOP and not "EOP elected?" I’m sure this is what EOP students were told during their six-week training camp the summer before their first year in SBU. EOP students are not allowed to bring cell phones to school during those six weeks, no contact with non-EOP student was allowed until late night after the programs ended. There was a designed absolute isolation. Does this sound like an organized brain wash? You bet.
If you take a look at the EOP students who are in USG office now, you’d see no "multi-ethnicities." You would see "one race" running the whole show.
Is this the kind of diversity we expect from a school like Stony Brook? Not that it’s a problem if something like this happens in a while; but this has been going on for many consecutive years. To make it worse, how would you like to hear the "racial discrimination" in election processes? Many Freshmen Representative and Senate candidates got their applications completed on time and properly?only if they were already friends with the current incompetent USG officials. Guess what happened to Asian American students who went to the USG office to apply? They were told "no seats" were open anymore, they were told to go back later, given the wrong applications, they were told that they would be contacted later but were never did. What more could’ve gone wrong with this process? Oh wait, there’s more! Last year an Asian American student was told that she was not eligible to run for Senate because she was a transfer student with no GPA, during the debate weeks after the application! At the time it seemed that Leighton was only being an incompetent Election Board Chair. However, people with no GPA were elected as Senators this year! Wait a minute! Leighton was the chair of Election Board last year, and he is still the chair this year? Guess what, his term has expired yet he allowed people who were not eligible to run last year to run this year, as an "expired" chair!
Enough ranting about the election process, let’s take a look at the clubs and organizations. First year new clubs are not allowed to apply for a yearly line budget, they have to apply for a base funding of 750 dollars through Special Services Council before the evaluation at the end of first year. The process is simple, you fill out a form and wait for a decision just like how most things "should" be done in USG. However, one Asian-American-interest club was at first refused their 750 dollars without proper explanation. I introduced this club to USG President Jared Wong, and President Wong pressured the SSC Chair to give proper explanations. Another Asian-American-interest club has been functioning on SSC base funding for 4 years, but it takes only 1 year to get on the line budget! Another Asian-American-interest club was "forced" to get on SSC base funding after it was promised a recommendation for line budget by the Executive Vice President Esam. According to USG Treasurer Rajat, USG lost all paperwork so they have no record of that club’s past, to make it fair USG has to deny their line budget. What about all those clubs who have been on line budget for the past several years??? If paperwork were lost and no record is left, how can you say it’s fair to force some clubs on base funding, and give line budget to others? I do not see the logic here, do you?
Is everything I stated here non-issue? Are my points of view over reacting? Imagine identical incidents but replace Asian Americans with African Americans. What would people say and do? Remember Civil Rights Movement? |
