Haha, losersMy GA rep forwards me an e-mail whining about what happened to the GA autonomy referendum:Fellow Grad Student:As some of you have noted from voting in the campus-wide student government election this morning, a ballot measure that would have formalized Graduate Assembly autonomy from the day-to-day politics of the ASUC was removed from the consideration of student voters. This action took place early this morning some five hours before balloting was to begin by an order of the Judicial Council. In one sweeping decision, the very politics that the Graduate Assembly has worked to extricate itself from for the last five years has pointed its dagger at graduate students once more.At the moment, our procedural and substantive mechanisms for attempting to get the measures back on the ballot have been exhausted. ASUC President Misha Leybovich issued an Executive Order requiring the measures to be put before the voters this week, but that order in turn was overruled by a single member of the Judicial Council.Needless to say, everyone at the Graduate Assembly and every graduate student has interested in the future of graduate student political autonomy regardless of how s/he feels about this particular ballot measure.Rather than feeling frustrated at the process and the seemingly arbitrary termination of a five-year long process towards graduate student autonomy, it is my hope that we can take from this episode a renewed vigor to participate in the political environment that surrounds us with an eye towards making substantial change.As such, I urge you to vote, and I urge to get others to vote, in this election despite the cloud of illegitimacy that now hangs over it. The graduate students of UC Berkeley cannot be silenced now or ever by the actions of one person, and by affirming our voice in the political process, we can show those who would deny us what our true strength is.Yours,Rishi N. SharmaWell, it's poetic, I guess.Note the following:ASUC President Misha Leybovich issued an Executive Order requiring the measures to be put before the voters this week, but that order in turn was overruled by a single member of the Judicial Council.Wow! That's, like, dictatorship! A single member overturned that order by... uh... oh... a single executive... posted by Beetle Aurora Drake 4/06/2005 06:33:00 PM # Comments (0) . . .
