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A response to Friday’s article ‘Two Vying for SGA Presidency’

By Letter to the Editor on March 22, 2010 2:00 am in Letters / 14 comments

 

Central Michigan Life should hold a higher standard in the area of importance it is supposed to know a thing or two about — factual information.

Friday’s article, “Two Vying for SGA Presidency,” was filled with misquotations and inaccuracies that would make Rita Skeeter blush.

The claim that Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates Evan Agnello and Jessica Richard jointly hold three years of SGA experience is far from the truth.

As current SGA Historian, impartial with no pending SGA elections affiliations for the following academic year, I researched the legitimacy of this information.

Based on public, official membership documentation for both the 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 academic years, the only evidence of either candidate’s membership was Jessica Richard’s service as Zeta Tau Alpha SGA representative for the fall 2008 semester.

Furthermore, the article stated that neither candidate is currently a member of SGA.

In actuality, Evan Agnello is supposed to be serving as the Campus Conservatives SGA representative, while membership documentation currently reveals that his attendance makes him subject to removal by the membership committee, per the SGA Bylaws.

Thus, whether or not he considers himself a member, all of this information combined puts the candidates’ joint SGA experience at less than one academic year.

When considering the importance of such an election to the future representation of CMU’s student body, Central Michigan Life should assign campaign-related stories to reporters who will validate the information that they plan to disburse to thousands of interested students.

This election does not need to be dirty and misinforming.

If not for the students, then for the sake of journalistic integrity, a discussion regarding work ethic may do Central Michigan Life some good.

Colleen Elizabeth McNeely
Student Government Association
Brighton freshman

 

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  • FERPA

    I believe this would constitute a violation under FERPA. You can not release confidential student information. McNeely is in big trouble.

  • Colleen McNeely

    Completely false, but go for it – I’ll see you in court!

  • FERPA

    A FERPA Complaint is in order

  • NOT FERPA

    NO FERPA

    Sorry but she is not the school disclosing information about the student she is another student and the statute applies to the institution…also this would be looked at as directory information and not part of the students record. lastly what would be the point of going to court there the only thing to gain would be to not allow colleen to be able to disclose the students information again. there are no damages that could be sought. it would be a frivolous suit that would not make it to court.

  • JackJ

    How is this a FERPA issue exactly? Last time I checked, official public information (as stated in Ms. McNeely’s letter) is the opposite of “confidential information.”

    Since this information is already available to the public – there is no reason to waste time crying about some imagined FERPA violation. Maybe before you make broad claims like that you should try doing some research first! A simple read of what the FERPA statute actually states will show you that information like this isn’t protected.

  • J

    FERPA has nothing to do with this, as none of it is “confidential student information.”

    Repeat “FERPA” three times while looking in a mirror… and, still, nothing happens.

  • Chuck

    I was in SGA a couple years back. Membership in SGA – and the potential for removal – is a matter of public, not private, record. So this ‘FERPA’ person should stop whining.

    Colleen, thanks for exposing this ‘newspaper’ and its disregard for facts.

  • J

    experience might not be the best thing in this case, I’m all for SGA presidents who want to see tailgate back to how it always should of been

  • Colleen McNeely

    Well, I sure am glad not everyone is an idiot around here!

    Also, the blame shouldn’t entirely be placed on CM Life with this issue. They have at least shown that they uphold a policy of correcting factual errors, whether or not they were given false information.

  • NOT FERPA

    tailgating tailgating tailgating… if people actually knew it was the administration that changed tailgating and the current SGA members worked with them to get back even some of the things that the students wanted. but lets not give them credit for that. people think that sga hasnt already approached the issue of tailgating…

    personally i would want someone with sga experience that knows how things are run and knows the correct facts and doesn’t lie to students about things in their campaign…

    i want someone who cares more about the students and education and making cmu better then just bringing back tailgating….ok so what if he brings tailgating back…then what…job done time to go home…he has no other goals…

    give me people with goals and experience i say!

  • KIllian Richeson

    To J,

    Well, experience is always an important thing. I can personally attest to how the tailgate issue was handled, and we must remember, that one of the tickets was involved in trying to make the University make concessions to their newly adopted policy (although that ticket had no original dealing with the committee that changed the CMU tailgating policy). It must be understood that it is hard for anyone to try and rally to “restore” tailgate to its original “glory”, considering we do not pay for tickets to get into the game because they are already assessed through tuition it is impossible to say that CMU is losing money through the policy. Not to mention last year CMU went 12-2 winning a MAC Championship and a Bowl Championship… you can’t really say that the new tailgate rules hindered the team at all; at least it would be a heck of a stretch to do so. Now there are certain things that the University will and will not work with, and experience with the situation is the only way to know about those and work towards changes. I would like to note: I am not making any promises for any one ticket and/or speaking on behalf of a ticket as a spokesperson and/or endorsing any one ticket, I am just simply giving my opinion as someone who has experience in SGA [currently I serve as the SGA Senate Leader].

  • john thorpe

    CM LIFE needs to do better than just regurgitate what they are given.

    Editors and writers need to verify the information they receive.

    CM LIFE’s adviser, Neil Hopp, should probably explain to the general public how he let such a large error slip by and get published. He does review all the pages before publication, does he not?

    Hopp owes this campus an apology.

  • Winston Smith

    this information is not “confidential” it is a matter of public record! Isn't Evan the one preaching “transparency”? I have found his supporters criticizing CM life as bias against him at the same time that he holds out for CM life as non bias debate moderator. The amount of doublethink in this campaign is staggering.

  • Winston Smith

    this information is not “confidential” it is a matter of public record! Isn't Evan the one preaching “transparency”? I have found his supporters criticizing CM life as bias against him at the same time that he holds out for CM life as non bias debate moderator. The amount of doublethink in this campaign is staggering.