Posted on 12/11/2003 8:21:57 PM PST by StopGlobalWhining
The fallout from controversial Halloween photos posted on the College Republican chair's personal Web site has led one student to announce her withdrawal from the university.
Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Pollock/Nittany Sen. Vicky Cangelosi announced her resignation and intention to withdraw at Tuesday's Senate meeting.
She said she no longer feels safe at the university and that she feels Penn State President Graham Spanier put her in danger by including a link to The fallout from controversial Halloween photos posted on the College Republican chair's personal Web site has led one student to announce her withdrawal from the university.
Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Pollock/Nittany Sen. Vicky Cangelosi announced her resignation and intention to withdraw at Tuesday's Senate meeting.
She said she no longer feels safe at the university and that she feels Penn State President Graham Spanier put her in danger by including a link to Penn State's online student directory in his written public statement about the pictures. As a result, she removed her address from the directory and later decided to withdraw from the university.
Cangelosi was not named in Spanier's statement, which was distributed over the Penn State Newswire. Newswire e-mail announcements always include the directory link at the end.
Cangelosi is one of five USG members who attended former Town Sen. Brian Battaglia's controversial Halloween party.
"Quite honestly, I'm very scared of the situation and how it has escalated," she said.
Cangelosi said she is afraid to sleep in her apartment and has not been attending classes.
The USG Senate voted Tuesday to form a committee of senators to investigate the character of USG members who attended the party. The committee could call for the impeachment of the three senators involved: Cangelosi, East Halls Sen. Matt Ritsko, and South Halls Sen. Andy Banducci.
In a statement that she made about 1:30 yesterday morning, Cangelosi said her parents are afraid for her safety, and they contacted Spanier, who did not respond. They eventually spoke with Art Carter, assistant vice president for student affairs, Cangelosi said.
She said Carter told her parents that Cangelosi was "imagining things."
Carter is out of town until tomorrow and could not be reached for comment.
Matt Midles, who was appointed temporary parliamentarian for the meeting, told Cangelosi that as a gay student, he feels endangered every day.
"I'm glad that you've been given an insight to what the students who have been targeted feel every day," Midles said. "You're being treated the same way that I've been treated my whole life."
Cangelosi told senators that she did not arrive at the Halloween party until after 11 p.m. and was dressed in a pirate costume.
One of the photographs found on Battaglia's Web site (http://botag.net) pictured former USG member Jason Covener dressed as USG Vice President and former Black Caucus Vice President Takkeem Morgan. Covener's face was painted black, and he was wearing a bicycle chain around his neck.
Cangelosi said no one was wearing an "offensive" costume while she was there and that Covener must have already wiped off the blackface by the time she arrived.
Other photographers portrayed an "oversodomized frat pledge," a "sorostitute" and an unidentified white man wearing blue bed sheets with a caption referring to the Ku Klux Klan.
Cangelosi said there is no truth in the statement that Battaglia's Halloween party was racist in theme.
"I condemn all racist actions and hate speech," Cangelosi said. "I very seriously resent any notion that I am a racist."
At Tuesday's meeting, Banducci, who also attended the Halloween party, addressed his fellow senators about the investigation against him and Ritsko.
"I realize the situation that everyone is in at this table," Banducci said. "I caution you to make a judgment, when you are looking at this, based on the people you know. Judge us fairly."
USG governmental relations director Frank Camarota also addressed the Senate at Tuesday's meeting, where he apologized for his delayed reaction.
"Had I known then what I know now of the recourse of those pictures, I would have taken a stronger stance against them," Camarota told senators.
Late Tuesday night, Julia Graham, USG Supreme Court clerk, issued a statement in relation to her attendance at the party, apologizing to those who were offended by the pictures.
"As much as I regret not taking some sort of action at the party, the simple fact is that it is in the past," Graham said. "So instead of belaboring the points of these past events, I would rather focus upon the future, over which we have control."
Graham indicated that this issue would not affect her duties as court clerk.Penn State's online student directory in his written public statement about the pictures. As a result, she removed her address from the directory and later decided to withdraw from the university.
Cangelosi was not named in Spanier's statement, which was distributed over the Penn State Newswire. Newswire e-mail announcements always include the directory link at the end.
Cangelosi is one of five USG members who attended former Town Sen. Brian Battaglia's controversial Halloween party.
"Quite honestly, I'm very scared of the situation and how it has escalated," she said.
Cangelosi said she is afraid to sleep in her apartment and has not been attending classes.
The USG Senate voted Tuesday to form a committee of senators to investigate the character of USG members who attended the party. The committee could call for the impeachment of the three senators involved: Cangelosi, East Halls Sen. Matt Ritsko, and South Halls Sen. Andy Banducci.
In a statement that she made about 1:30 yesterday morning, Cangelosi said her parents are afraid for her safety, and they contacted Spanier, who did not respond. They eventually spoke with Art Carter, assistant vice president for student affairs, Cangelosi said.
She said Carter told her parents that Cangelosi was "imagining things."
Carter is out of town until tomorrow and could not be reached for comment.
Matt Midles, who was appointed temporary parliamentarian for the meeting, told Cangelosi that as a gay student, he feels endangered every day.
"I'm glad that you've been given an insight to what the students who have been targeted feel every day," Midles said. "You're being treated the same way that I've been treated my whole life."
Cangelosi told senators that she did not arrive at the Halloween party until after 11 p.m. and was dressed in a pirate costume.
One of the photographs found on Battaglia's Web site (http://botag.net) pictured former USG member Jason Covener dressed as USG Vice President and former Black Caucus Vice President Takkeem Morgan. Covener's face was painted black, and he was wearing a bicycle chain around his neck.
Cangelosi said no one was wearing an "offensive" costume while she was there and that Covener must have already wiped off the blackface by the time she arrived.
Other photographers portrayed an "oversodomized frat pledge," a "sorostitute" and an unidentified white man wearing blue bed sheets with a caption referring to the Ku Klux Klan.
Cangelosi said there is no truth in the statement that Battaglia's Halloween party was racist in theme.
"I condemn all racist actions and hate speech," Cangelosi said. "I very seriously resent any notion that I am a racist."
At Tuesday's meeting, Banducci, who also attended the Halloween party, addressed his fellow senators about the investigation against him and Ritsko.
"I realize the situation that everyone is in at this table," Banducci said. "I caution you to make a judgment, when you are looking at this, based on the people you know. Judge us fairly."
USG governmental relations director Frank Camarota also addressed the Senate at Tuesday's meeting, where he apologized for his delayed reaction.
"Had I known then what I know now of the recourse of those pictures, I would have taken a stronger stance against them," Camarota told senators.
Late Tuesday night, Julia Graham, USG Supreme Court clerk, issued a statement in relation to her attendance at the party, apologizing to those who were offended by the pictures.
"As much as I regret not taking some sort of action at the party, the simple fact is that it is in the past," Graham said. "So instead of belaboring the points of these past events, I would rather focus upon the future, over which we have control."
Graham indicated that this issue would not affect her duties as court clerk.
You're ridiculous. You know you're losing a debate when you start using the "you seem" method of debate, ascribing motives and actions to people without proof, and frame every single fact-set in the terms of victimhood, again straight out of the Victimology handbook. You're race hustling with the best of them.
The one time you actually use my real words, you proceed to argue an assertion of fact without substantiation.
You haven't established either that (1) the University administration is defending Takeem's retention in office, or that (2) they're doing so because of race.
If you want to build a case, take small steps and establish your foundation.
I'm not wasting any more time on this. Let's agree to disagree on everything under the sun. You may now proceed to Step 2 in the Victimology Handbook, ad hominem.
I agree with that. But this isn't a legal case is it? It's just some stupid kids dressed up in blackface and KKK sheets getting spanked for racially inflammatory behaviour, spanked by a student government and a university administration, historically fickle and subjective bodies as everyone with an ounce of sense or prudence knows.
You're taking longer and longer to say less and less. You're not persuading me by being more and more indirect and avoiding the provable facts.
but as far as I know did not directly address the presence of the thief in student council. I take this as evidence of his priorities, supported by the reaminder of the race based initiatives and systems on campus.
Here you are emotionally stacking up reasons to feel victimized, as though Spanier and the university are in a conspiracy specifically against you in particular or whites in general. Race-based initiatives are unrelated to this case. Takeem's bicycle theft is unrelated to this case. Stringing together isolated perceived grievances into a victimization conspiracy is what race hustlers do. Attack one grievance on its merits, then move on to the next, on the merits. If you find a real conspiracy, then prove it. Otherwise you're just Jesse Jackson.
Read your replies to me and imagine them as Letters-to-the-Editor of the Collegian or the CDT. Would you be comfortable making these arguments to a wider public, for your friends, family, teachers, etc. to read them? Would they be proud and agree or would they sit you down for a serious talk? Think.
Again, if you think it inappropriate for Takeem to hold office in USG, then act on it on the merits, not because his skin is dark. You may win, or you may fail, and then you will have learned that justice is not a science but a work in progress.
Isn't that exactly what the US Senate has done for the laughingly called "Honorable" Senator Robert Byrd (D,WV)?
Last year, Chris Matthews, who had worked as an aide to former House Speaker Tip O'Neill, disclosed that O'Neill used to refer to Byrd as "Sheets".
I wonder how many PSU students are aware of this program? I have mentioned it to several students recently and they were skeptical. Unless it has been discontinued during the past decade, this was definitely the case in the early 1990's.
I believe that there has been a racial backlash at Penn State in recent years, and that many students have come straight out of high school into PSU without a prejudiced bone in their body, only to leave here 4 years later with entirely different attitudes.
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