Duck Season

The Student Senate finally passed a resolution opposing HB 2400. The resolution, because of some weird procedural requirement, must now be sent back to committee. I've attended a few Senate meetings in my time, and if I leave UMass confident of anything, it will be that the Senate parliamentarian is a procedural-nazi.

Money quote:

However, not all agreed with the approach. One person familiar with MassPIRG and the situation stated on the condition of anonymity that the issue "never should've been brought up in the Student Senate."

The person also chastised Representative James Fagan (D-Taunton), the originator of HB 2400, for not knowing that The Mass Media would be affected by the bill. In a recent interview with The Mass Media, Fagan said he did not know that The Mass Media was affected by it, but stated he opposed waivable fees on principle. "I want to make an affirmative choice to spend my own money. I don't need anybody-I'm already married, I don't need anybody else's help in any way," he told The Mass Media.

"How can someone on the Ethics Committee have the balls to go in and say that he's truly trying to do something for students when he doesn't know the parties involved?" said the source, also criticizing HB 2400 as a "state senate push to get rid of MassPIRG," as retaliation for its role in the passing of the Clean Elections law.

This brings up a few contradictory impulses in my mind. I cringed when I read The Mass Media's interview with Rep. James Fagan who responded to a question about student democratic rights' by saying "I assign MassPIRG the same level of credibility that I would give the bacteria that lives in the feces of a rabid dog." Ouch. Way to make it easy to be on your side buddy. Fagan was definitely sloppy with his handling of campus media, and probably should have found out who might be effected by his legislation.

On the other hand, if this is political payback for the Clean Elections law, we have an interesting problem. I support the Clean Elections Law. Yet, if it is true that MassPIRG had a role in passing the Clean Elections law, and this is representative of their legislative work, how can MassPIRG be described as an organization that takes student money to support student causes? (4th paragraph) As much as I support the Clean Elections law, how do we justify MassPIRG using UMass tuition bills as a resource sponge to spend student cash on legislation wholly unrelated to education?

Question for Gin: If MassPIRG has a presence on campus as both a Lobby Group and a Student Club, do they routinely double dip? From having been in the Politics Society one year I know that all clubs get an initial allotment of like $50.00, but are there records available to track down the total amount of money the MassPIRG club has received for its activities from the Student Senate?

I just doesn't seem right that MassPIRG, in any form, should be able to charge a fee on our tuition bill and then get a share of the student activities money.

The Mass Media editorial staff opposes the Partial Birth Abortion ban.

They've got a mole: Some mysterious fellow (Why are they so poorly identified? I thought letter writers had to give their names, majors, and year of graduation?) on campus gets a second pro-Lieberman letter published. It's a zionist conspiracy!!