I got this e-mail about motherjones.com calling on all college students who raised hell on campuses with their campaigns. I laughed when I read it because it reminded me of my college days when we were tired of the same *ish* in our student government so we TOOK OVA!
We were told that diversity wasn't a priority of student government and that if we wanted to see change, we should get involved with student government. And so -- we did -- by completing taking over the cabinet positions and most of the senate positions. It was a hellish few weeks of campaigning with a WHOLE LOTTA D-R-A-M-A, but our slate prevailed. First time in the history of ASLMU where there was some change to the race, gender, and sexual orientation dynamics to ASLMU.
It cracks me up and at the same time makes me feel darn good when I think back to:
-- another candidate spying on us and got us disqualified over something really petty
-- the other two president/vp candidates were close friends and worked together to get our slate out
-- the election committee was hand-selected by the guy who was running for re-election (SHADY!)
-- verbal threats to our slate president
-- one of the guys yelling at my friend (a womyn!) on our campaign
-- running to campus org meetings to beat the other slate on their speech
-- weeks of no sleep
-- days of wearing the same shirt and carrying the same picket sign everywhere ....
A SUCCESSFUL WRITE-IN CAMPAIGN (since we were disqualified!) with 1,000 VOTES outnumbering the other slates of 400 and 550 or so votes. I did make someone cry during this whole process and still 'til this day, I sometimes feel bad. I never knew college politics could be so dirty.
Victory never smelled SO sweet.
www.fixaslmu.com
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http://www.motherjones.com/campus/2009
Calling All Campus Hellraisers!
Mother Jones, Campus Progress, and WireTap proudly introduce the first annual Hellraisers, where we honor the year's most noteworthy student campaigns and other creative feats of campus activism.
Hell Raisers!
Selected nominees will be featured in the September/October 2009 issue of Mother Jones.
Anyone can nominate, and self-nominations are allowed. Student activists of any age (not just college) are eligible. Nominated actions must have taken place between June 1, 2008, and June 30, 2009.
