St Govt Tosses Election Over Electronic Write-Ins

May 15, 2008 in Litigation, Student Government, Student vs. Student | by | 1 comment

Mesa State College’s student government used online voting exclusively for the first time this spring, and their method of dealing with write-in candidates caused the student judiciary to throw out the election results in the race for student trustee.

The student government constitution at Mesa State provides one nomination process for standard candidates for office, and another, with a later deadline, for official write-in candidates. This year, one student ran for student trustee in the ordinary fashion, and two others ran as write-ins.

The voting software the student government used for the election had no provision for write-in candidates, however, so student election officials and advisors agreed to place the names of all three candidates on the ballot screen, with “(write-in)” following two of them.

Write-in candidate Susanna Morris won the election by a two-to-one margin, and incumbent Ashley Mates, the sole non-write-in on the ballot, brought suit in student court.

A new election will be held in the fall.

Columbia 1968, Columbia 2008.

May 15, 2008 in Students | by | Leave a comment

Two stories:

Reflections from African-American woman who, as a Columbia student, participated in the protests that wracked that campus in the spring of 1968. And a review of the year in student protest at Columbia, 2007-08.

More on Tulane Sexual Violence

May 14, 2008 in Administration, Campus Press, Campus Protests, Feminism, Fraternities and Sororities, Gender, Police, Sexual Violence, Students | by | 3 comments

We’ve recently reported on two sexual assault scandals at Tulane University — the school’s failure to investigate allegations of drugging and rape at fraternity parties, and the mild punishment meted out by the campus judiciary to a student it found guilty of committing sexual assault in a dorm.

Today, via SAFER Campus, we have word of two other incidents that took place at Tulane this year.

In October, a male student was allegedly sexually assaulted by a Tulane campus police officer. The officer in question was dismissed from his job, but the administration has made no public statement on the incident or on whether any further steps have been taken. As SAFER Campus notes, federal law mandates that colleges inform the student body when such crimes occur.

In April, a student wrote in the campus newspaper of being assaulted on his way home from a party by assailants who called him a “fag.” The campus police, he says, did not conduct a criminal investigation of the assault, and the university administration failed to offer him any outreach or counseling in the wake of the crime. 

SAFER Campus has on these stories — and the other Tulane events we’ve been following — here.

Tulane Gives Accused Dorm Rapist Slap On Wrist

May 13, 2008 in Access, Administration, Campus Protests, Feminism, Gender, Police, Sexual Violence, Students | by | 5 comments

On the heels of the news that Tulane ignored allegations of druggings and possible sexual assaults at a frat party, another disturbing story.

Last July, Tulane student Anna Minkinow brought a complaint against a fellow student for raping her in a Tulane dorm. She chose to pursue the complaint through the university judicial system, which did not hold a hearing for nine months.

When the hearing was finally held in April of this year, Minkinow says, the panel behaved inappropriately and offensively. They found Minkinow’s attacker guilty of sexual misconduct, but rejected her request that he be expelled from the university. Instead they banned him from having contact with her, barred him from entering the dorms, and mandated that he seek counseling.

One day later, she says, he approached her at a campus event. He didn’t speak to her, but he stood in close proximity to her for fifteen minutes. 

Not long after that incident Minkinow and a friend staged an impromptu campus protest in which they bound and gagged themselves to symbolize the silencing of rape victims. She has since met with the university’s vice president for student affairs to pursue measures to strengthen the campus’s code of student conduct.

One reform that Minkinow has not yet won support for is a minimum punishment for students found guilty of sexual offenses. Presently, the university provides minimum sentences for only three forms of misconduct: alcohol violation, drug violations and pulling a fire alarm.

Update: More on sexual assaults at Tulane here.

Late Update: We have learned that Minkinow has started a blog.

White Student, Black College.

May 13, 2008 in Gender, History, Race, Students | by | Leave a comment

Morehouse College in Atlanta is the only all-male historically black college in the United States. This spring, for the first time in its 141-year history, its valedictorian is a white man.

MSNBC has the story, and the blog Stereohyped has some thoughts. (Both links via Racialicious.)

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StudentActivism.net is the work of Angus Johnston, a historian and advocate of American student organizing.

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