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SGA SHOWDOWN
Kelli Susemihl
Kelli.Susemihl@coyotes.usd.edu
As the Student Government Association presidential debate and election approaches, executive office candidates are preparing themselves for Thursday’s debate and making final efforts in their campaigns. Executive officer candidates Josh Sorbe, with running mate Madison Green, and Marcus Ireland, with running mate Caleb Munce, hope to answers students’ questions and concerns at this year’s SGA presidential debate,
which is co-hosted by the Cross Media Council and Political Science League.
Ireland and Munce
Ireland, a junior political science, criminal justice and philosophy triple major, and Munce, a junior political science major, are running on a platform of student awareness. Ireland said his focus is to remove the divide between students and SGA and to make students more aware of what the organization does through rou-
tine emails and inviting students to weekly meetings. “My primary goal is to remove that gap, through having things such as special town halls with the deans,” Ireland said. “We also want to implement programs that would require senators to go out and speak with students.” Ireland said their campaign is focusing on creating awareness about SGA as a whole, instead of focusing on just the election. “We try to educate them on the issues that SGA is currently handling outside of the debate
itself and then going on and informing them about our own campaign,” he said. Regardless if the outcome is in their favor or not, Ireland said he can complete part of his platform through the campaign process. “Although I obviously want to run a great campaign and see us come out victorious, it’s more important that if I’m running on awareness, that I should be making sure (students are) aware of what SGA is,” he said. See DEBATE, Page A3
Executive office nominees, Josh Sorbe with Madison Green and Marcus Ireland with Caleb Munce prepare for the SGA presidential debate Feb. 22.
Logan Rahn I The Volante
Free speech policy petition started Devin Martin
Devin.Martin@coyotes.usd.edu
With a Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) state chair on campus collecting signatures for a free speech petition, students are talking about what USD’s free speech policy is. Brandon Fokkema, Iowa state chair for YAL, said the organization is about promoting individual freedom, free markets and personal responsibility. YAL came to campus after reviewing USD’s free speech policies and the FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Freedom) report, which scored USD as a red light campus. “One of our partners organizations is FIRE, and they gave USD a red light rating for their free speech policies on campus,” Fokkema said. “One of the things that is big at Young Americans for Liberty is to kind of go after these free speech policies and reform policies on campus.” One policy that Fokkema said caught his attention about USD’s FIRE report was a section on solicitation. “One of the policies was the solicitation policy in terms of having to get approval to handout information or even getting signatures even if you are a student on campus,” Fokkema said. “This is something the Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional presumption of free speech on public universities, and that’s one of the policies we want to get changed.” After petitioning this afternoon, Fokkema said he managed to collect 60-75 signatures. Fokkema said the goal of petitioning was to “enact some change on campus.” “I think this petition is a good way to convince the university
that the freedom to express different ideas is conducive to a learning environment on campus,” Fokkema said. “Whether ideas that you agree with, but also ideas that you disagree with, it’s good to hear both sides of it so you’re not stuck in an echo chamber.” Parker Spitzer, a junior economics and strategic communications double major, said he spoke with Fokkema about his concerns toward free speech on campus. “I’ve had multiple phone calls with Brandon,” Spitzer said. “We’ve been discussing the idea of what our free speech policy is on campus…we’ve had solid questions about what the policy really was and how to enforce it.” After looking into the policy, a YAL chapter formed on campus. Members of College Republicans are working with Kim Grieve, the dean of students, to discuss free speech policies and update the policies on the USD webpage. Jaedon Foreman, a sophomore economics major and vice president of College Republicans, said what’s “disconcerting” with USD’s free speech policies are what the university defines as “freedom of speech” and their ability to censor certain content. “Personally (what I) find most disconcerting is you can’t find the free speech policy right away on the website, it’s not on the quick links or anything,” Foreman said. “The university does not have its own free speech policy, it just adopts the BOR policy. What we have now is insufficient because we don’t know what is protected here at USD for our freedom of speech rights.”
File photo I The Volante
Lena Tran served as the Center for Diversity & Community’s intercultural program coordinator for two
years before resigning in October 2017.
Tran shares concerns, reasons for leaving Volante Staff volante@usd.edu
By Cheyenne Alexis and Ally Krupinsky. This is the second part of an ongoing story. Students in the Center for Diversity & Community (CDC) are hoping for a positive semester this spring after a “tumultuous” fall. One source of student concern was Lena Tran’s departure from the CDC’s intercultural program coordinator position. “Everyone was like, ‘She made the CDC what it is’ and like, ‘What are we going to do without her?’” said Micci Abbott, a senior sport marketing and media major. Tran cited several reasons for her resignation, including conflict with the CDC’s former director, Adetokunbo Oredein; frustration with the mishandling of her complaints and a need to preserve her personal well-being. “I fought tooth and nail, tooth and nail, for our students ’til the end. And I think there are things
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I fought tooth and nail, tooth and nail, for our students ‘til the end. Lena Tran, former CDC intercultural program coordinator
that aren’t being discovered or talked about,” she said. “That’s where I worry about the future of how we value a population of students – that we have to understand that there are longterm consequences to this, not short-term.” Oredein, who was contacted by The Volante prior to the first story in this series, declined to comment.
Conflict
Tran said she and Lamont Sellers, associate vice president for diversity, worked “really well” together when Sellers was the director of the CDC. “I believe that things changed when he… became the vice president for diversity,” Tran said.
Sellers was promoted to the position in October 2016. Tran said she applied for the CDC director position, but wasn’t hired. Before Oredein was hired in March 2017, Tran said she stepped up in the CDC. When Oredein accepted the position as the CDC director, Tran said she had a positive first impression of him. “I thought at first he was very social, very nice, and I was looking forward to working with him and to bounce ideas,” she said. After a few months of working together, Tran increasingly became concerned with Oredein’s behavior. “I felt like my work environment was hostile,” she said. See TRAN, Page A6