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Response to Marcy Gotterbarn

By Matt Margolis | April 10, 2003

The statement I made on this website regarding the change of leadership in the University of Hartford Student Government got a bit of attention on campus. This is remarkable since I never sent the link out to any University of Hartford students. I only just became aware that the Editor-In-Chief of the Informer, Marcy Gotterbarn, actually wrote a story about it in the Informer.

This astonished me. I never would have thought that what appeared on my site would have incited a response or statement on behalf of any University of Hartford entity. Although the article is not political in nature, I�ve decided to write a response to it.

If you have recently been to MattMargolis.com and have scrolled down to the bottom of the screen you have seen the opinion of alumnus Matt Margolis on the recent change of leadership in SGA.
I was raised to believe that no one is perfect. Everyone has done something stupid that they are ashamed of or regret. It’s a normal thing. No one expects perfection from people, not even from those in leadership positions.

Perfection is certainly not expected from our leadership. However, if a �leader� has partaken in illegal actions and was caught doing so, that is certainly a justified reason to question the leadership abilities of that individual.

Every leader is going to step up to the plate and deal with some sort of harassment about his or her past. I am not saying that whatever trouble that person got into was right and didn’t set a good example, but I am sure they learned from the situation.

I wouldn�t give Amiel Hersh or anyone credit for learning from their past mistakes. Repeat crimes occur all the time, and college students are no less prone to recidivism than the general public.

However, they have to deal with the press “uncovering” things from their past because they have put themselves in the public eye.

Just for the record, I do not consider myself �the press� so to speak. I am certainly not a journalist. However, the intention of my statement on the SGA leadership was meant to give those University of Hartford students the opportunity to realize that as damaging as the arrest of T.J. Legg was to the University, that his replacement is by no means able to restore any dignity to the office because he had participated in similar activity � and was caught.

Margolis has decided to take on the role of uncovering things about those in the University of Hartford SGA. If you check out the page I am talking about, you will see Margolis uncovering something about our new SGA President Ami Hersh’s past. However, Margolis has no proof of this incident.

Because I am not a journalist, I did not take the time or the effort to �uncover� documentation or acquire affidavits regarding the incident. To say that I have no proof is to suggest that I have made up the story, or the information I learned regarding the incident was false � which just isn�t the case.

There is no report from Public Safety and no eyewitness to the event.

I would tend to believe from this statement that Marcy attempted to retrieve the information about the incident from Public Safety. It is highly unlikely she would have spoken to the correct person, or even been been able to get access to the report, because, in fact, a report does exist � I know because I had it checked � by my friend who was involved in the incident and knew which officer handled the case.

He was not there and, according to the editorial that he refers to, all he has is the word from his friend. The story that he refers you to on that site is an editorial and Hersh’s name is not even mentioned.

Well, I partially relied on the story of my friend. However, I was a witness to the incident, for my friend spoke to me when he was being bothered by the noise. He also came to me after being rudely turned away by occupants of that apartment when he requested they turn the noise down. I actually advised my friend to go to the Resident Assistant, who in turn reported the incident to Public Safety, and I personally observed Public Safety entering the apartment.

I was also present when my friend received a phone call from Amiel Hersh during which Amiel complained to my friend for turning him in because they �got in really big trouble.�

As far as the reason why Amiel�s name was not mentioned in that editorial, the reason is that it was made aware to me by the Editor-In-Chief at the time that it was not appropriate to name names in an article of that nature, for the Informer was not meant to be a forum for students to bash other students. So I honored that, and gave Amiel Hersh anonymity in the editorial. I do not see how omission of his name in that editorial is an issue.

Further proof that the incident occurred: Amiel and his roommates were not allow to �squat� that apartment for the following year. I am not sure if that was their only punishment, but nevertheless, Marcy, or anyone else in the Informer, or University of Hartford staff, faculty, or student body could look up records and find out that in the following year, different students occupied that apartment. I should know � I was friends with some of them.

With SGA elections just around the corner do not take what Matt Margolis has stated about SGA into consideration.

I don�t mind that Marcy advised the student body to not take what I wrote into consideration. However, I think the intent of her words were lost in the fact that all she did was call attention to my website, thus raising curiosity of those who had not known about the website or the statement on it � which ultimately happened for my website received 10 times as many hits than it normally does during the week that followed the publication of the issue of the Informer that this story ran.

People cannot run for SGA if they have violated probation or have been found guilty of a violation by the University’s Judicial Board.

There is no reason to research the candidate’s history, as that is taken care of before their name is put on the ballot. What I do think you should do is go out and vote for the people that you feel will represent us the best and will do the best job for us.

Obviously, the research done on a candidate is not performed adequately.

The people who win will represent the University of Hartford and are in the public eye, not only at our University, but also in Greater Hartford. We choose these people and I suggest you do so carefully. If you don’t want a relapse of this past year then get to SGA during the first week of May and vote. To find out who is running you can read the Informer on Mar. 27, the issue which will contain each candidate’s platform. In addition, the Informer will hopefully be endorsing an SGA President.

I agree with the above statement Marcy made. Hopefully, the University of Hartford will not experience another embarrassing incident within the SGA. Thankfully, Amiel Hersh�s time as SGA President is coming to an end very soon.