KIT-BACON GRESSITT
GUEST COLUMNIST
A newspaper headline caught my eye recently: “Animal avoidance leads to costly collision.” It brought to mind CSUSM student government candidate and Koala editor Matt Weaver, who was arrested the final day of March’s ASI elections for suspicion of election fraud, identity theft, and unlawful access to a computer or database.
Weaver helped launch the CSUSM edition of The Koala, one of three owned by the privately owned, for-profit company, in January 2011. There have been many times since then that the university administration could have acted to moderate Weaver and his Koalan cohorts (if not The Koala’s owner) by condemning their discriminatory content and directly ameliorating their effects on the campus community. Instead, the administration avoided confrontation.
The administration did take its head out of the sand after The Koala published a doctored pornographic image of a student, initiating possible disciplinary action against several Koalans for alleged student conduct code violations. But in a Nov. 2, 2011 letter, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education sent CSUSM President Karen Haynes a threat of legal action if the process was not stopped immediately. The letter read in part that Haynes would be “at risk of losing qualified immunity, thereby opening you and other administrators to personal liability should one of the students seek monetary damages for the deprivation of his or her First Amendment rights.” No surprise: The administration withdrew into passive mode.
Apparently emboldened by the persistent lack of censure, Weaver now finds himself charged with multiple felonies. But is he the only person potentially guilty of unacceptable behavior in the campus’ seemingly permissive environment?
How about the other candidates accused of running as a slate, a violation of the university election code?
How about the ASI “higher ups” who supposedly leaked early election returns to a favored student candidate?
How about the staff member accused of berating students at a campus candidate forum for exercising their free speech right?
How about the administration whose reluctance to act condones harassment and discrimination, cheating and verbal abuse?
CSUSM is not “Animal House.” We live in a real world, where words wound, where harassment inhibits learning, where wayward college students go to prison— a world where the administration’s avoidance of confrontation leads to costly collisions between campus community standards and people who feel entitled to defy them. Nope, compared to CSUSM, “Animal House” looks like kindergarten.