20 March Senate update

...Wow.  I will elaborate more tomorrow... but this was a level of absurdity I was just not prepared for.

Senate tonight

We have senate tonight at 7:30.  I will be posting a summation of it afterwards.  If you can make it tonight I highly recommend it.  Senate meets in Room 282 of the Reitz Union.

W and the Allocations chair

Right on cue, the Alligator editorial board has this scathing article right before today's senate meeting.

March 20th Editorial

The Newspaper Incident followup

Remember in the Senate Pro Tempore's apology, he mentioned a person by name.   I will refer to her as W, and reprinting the article because I like you guys so much.
The Apology

Anyways, he mentioned that W was with him at the time he threw away 268 copies of the newspaper.  That means she stood by as he committed the crime, said nothing while the Alligator was being slandered, and remained silent while the Pro Tempore denied any wrong doing.  And who is she you asked?  Why the former vice-chair of the Rules and Ethics committee. 

W's role
The Student's Party has already called for her resignation.

This is the type of hypocrisy the Unite party is known for.  The R and E committee is the one tasked with investigating allegations of wrong doing by government officials.  And she was the vice chair of it.  Literally, it is the "do as I say, not as I do" mentality.

And why do I refer to her as the former vice-chair?  Because just yesterday she was appointed Chairwoman of the Allocation's Committee.  Wonderful.  In Unite, you fail upwards. 

The newspaper incident

As I stated, this blog was meant to expose the corruption and absurdity of the UF Senate under the Unite Party.  Well, looks like it's time I began.  This incident occurred during the most recent election.  This is going to be a long post.

On February 20th, Two witnesses saw the senate pro tempore (basically the number 2 guy in the senate) throwing away 268 copies of the student newspaper "The Independent Florida Alligator" because they ran a headline showing that the head coach of the Florida Gator football team, Muschamp, endorsing the Student Party's VP candidate.  The VP candidate was a walk-on Fullback on the football team.

The original article

By the way, check out the comments on that page.  Remember how much they denied his involvement in the incident, and then proceed to claim the Alligator was making it up.


The same day as the news article, an editorial was written.   They call for his release and for the other person involved to step forward and apologize.  Once again, check out the comments. 

Editorial


In response, the Unite Party Presidential candidate released this video saying the Alligator was "falsifying stories."  He also said that the newspaper was being racially discriminatory against his all minority racial ticket.  A fact he brought up numerous times in his campaign. 

Candidate's video

Every Friday, the Alligator print's a section called "Darts and Laurels", where it acknowledges good and bad events going on.  They gave a Dart to the Senate Pro Tempore, calling for his resignation.  Also, I have it on good authority that the commentator "You Got Served" is the Unite Party Presidential Candidate.

Feb 24th Dart and Laurel

Then, Glory be, the Senate Pro Tempore suddenly resigned after the election.  He gave no indication why he was resigning. 

The Alligator, not at all amused by his continued silence on the subject gave him another Dart that Friday.

March 2nd Dart and Laurel

Finally, on March 12th, 3 weeks after the original incident, the Senate Pro Tempore wrote his apology and admitted his guilt.  Suddenly the comments against the Alligator were silent.  However, the damage was done.  The election was over.  In the end, the Student's Party picked up 19 seats, and lost the Presidency by 114 votes.

The Apology

I have never seen an apology from the President Candidate about his false statement about the Alligator.

There is a followup to this whole thing, but that will be my next post.

Okay, had to get all that background stuff out of the way.  If I've forgotten anything, I'll mention it in future posts.

The Parties

There are currently 2 active political parties at UF

The Unite Party-currently has the majority of seats in the student senate, as well as the President, Vice President and Treasurer.  Since the Supreme Court Justices are appointed by the President, well, you figure it out.

The Student's Party- currently the minority party in the student senate.  It picked up 19 seats in the last election cycle.  

It is important to point out that there is no Left-Right, Liberal-Conservative divide among the parties.  Both sides of the aisles have members from, umm... both sides of the aisles.  I wanted to make that known so people who read this blog (I hope) don't try labeling one or the other, or trying to fit preconceived notions onto them.  It just won't work.

Makeup of the Government

For those that do not know, UF has a political system much like the Federal Government. 

The Executive Branch is composed of a President and Vice President and Treasurer.  They get elected every Spring.

There is a Judiciary Branch in the form of a 7 person Supreme Court, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.  All justices must be a law school student.

Finally, there is  the Student Senate.  The senate is comprised of 100 students, with 1 election in the Fall semester and 1 in the Spring.  50 seats are voted on each election.  In the fall, the seats are distributed by where a student physically resides:  Either in an on-campus residence hall, or an off campus district/zipcode.  In the Spring the seats are distributed by class and college. 

Apportionment is as follows
Beaty Towers ……………................................................... 1
Broward Area……………………………………………… 1
Family Housing...................................................................... 1
Graham Area………………………………………………. 1
Hume Area………………………………………………… 1
Jennings Area……………………………………………… 1
Keys Residential Complex.................................................... 1
Lakeside Residential Complex………….............................. 1
Murphree Area................................................…………….. 1
Rawlings Area……………………………………………… 1
Reid-Yulee-Mallory Area...................................................... 1
Springs Residential Complex…….………………………… 1
Tolbert Area………………………………………………. 1
District A: ZIP Codes 32601, 32609, 32641.......................... 9
District B: ZIP Codes 32603, 32605, 32606, 32653............. 7
District C: ZIP Codes 32607.................................................. 7
District D: ZIP Codes 32608.................................................. 13
District E: All other locations not included within the ZIP codes listed above..................................................................... 1
Fisher School of Accounting................................................. 1
Architecture.....................................................................… 1
Agriculture and Life Sciences............................................... 3
M.E. Rinker School of Building Construction...................... 1
Business Administration..................................................... 2
Dentistry.............................................................................. 1
Education............................................................................ 1
Engineering......................................................................... 3
Fine Arts............................................................................. 1
Graduate Students............................................................... 11
Health and Human Performance......................................... 1
Public Health and Health Professions.................................... 1
Journalism and Communications........................................... 1
Levin College of Law........................................................... 1
Liberal Arts and Sciences................................................... 7
Medicine............................................................................. 1
Nursing............................................................................... 1
Pharmacy............................................................................ 2
Undergraduate Freshman Class.......................................... 3
Undergraduate Sophomore Class........................................ 6
Veterinary Medicine........................................................... 1

Welcome!

I started this blog as a place where I can share some of the crazy things that go on in the University of Florida's Student Government.  Part of the problem at UF is that most students are in the dark about what happens here, or how SG affects them.  Another part is that they assume the people running it are competent (I assure you, they are not).  I hope to enlighten and entertain at the same time.  

I intend to provide background information on the events that go on, and put them into context of the current political climate.  Wherever possible I will post links to stories or events that I will be talking about.  So lets see how this goes...