University of Hartford
« Previous EntriesTaking On Liberal UHa
Thursday, September 30th, 2004I miss my days at the University of Hartford. I used to write for the school paper, The Informer, and often caused a stir. It appears that there is still some vocal conservatives on campus, contributing to the paper I left a few years ago… Andrew Sky Crump has some questions young Democrats on campus… Jason Komninos, who was a member of the student radio station WSAM when I was on campus, tells the campus there is a clear difference between Bush and Kerry.
Memories of Radio
Saturday, September 25th, 2004Earlier today I did a radio interview in studio on WBIX AM1060 in Boston, MA. It reminded me of my days in radio back at the University of Hartford.
I figured I would share a couple audio bytes with everyone - not from my show itself, but instead some stuff I produced for my show or the radio station in general.
Here is the intro for my radio show, which began in October 2001:
This is a station ID that I created for my station (which I am particularly proud of–despite including the music of the anti-Bush Foo Fighters.) This was produced in late September or early October 2001:
A Letter From my old Battlegrounds
Sunday, November 16th, 2003Today I received an e-mail from a current student at the University of Hartford. It’s nice to see my efforts recognized by others.
Hi, Matt. I saw your site a while ago and today I felt like writing to you. As you may recall, I was one of your fellow staff members on the Informer, and I portrayed myself as a radical leftist. Today, I still think I am radical, although I can’t say I’m a leftist anymore. The change started when, one day in class, my ‘liberal,’ hippie friend turned on me after I somewhat-jokingly said that I didn’t want to go to her antiwar protest, because the war was going to happen anyway. Now, like you, I was raised in a pretty ‘liberal’ town and engrained with its cultural stereotypes. Becoming an unofficial resident of West Hartford has been an eye-opener. I’m still a Democrat, but only because I want to have a say in who becomes mayor of my town and no Republican has ever made it past the primary. Well, what I wanted to say was that although I do not agree with everything you say, I think you are a good writer, are rightfully entitled to your opinion, and to the free expression of it. You are obviously going places.
Chris Dubey
University of Hartford
Class of 2005
Thanks, Chris.
The Inequalities of Multicultural Representation
Saturday, October 18th, 2003While it’s tough to keep up with the goings-on at my alma mater, the University of Hartford, whenever a story in the school paper, The Informer, catches my attention, I feel inclined to write about it. While at the current time it is unclear if The Informer may consider publishing a possible submission by me, (as they did on occasion last school year) I nevertheless want to write about it here – considering I do get visit from the University of Hartford campus on occasion.
I was particularly interested in a story in the most recent issue entitled “Multicultural Groups to Fight SGA Decision.” It appears that the student government, which is no stranger to scandal, is enduring a bit of heat for a decision made at the end of 2002-2003 academic year, which stripped multicultural clubs from having votes in the student government.
What amazed me first was that the Student Government Association (SGA) had actually made a decision of this magnitude that I actually agreed with.
Nevertheless, the Left of the University of Hartford have spoken out against this decision. Of course, this is to be expected. The University of Hartford has a decently sized minority student population. While they have been vocal… they’ve been quite ridiculous in their arguments to have SGA appeal the decision.
Sterling Garcia, a student, spoke out at a SGA meeting saying, “I urge you, senators, to fight this injustice.”
Injustice? Hardly.
The Executive Vice-President of SGA, Jacob Wilk, stated that the reason behind this decision was due to the fact that “SGA can’t house the 80 or so clubs on campus if they all choose to have a vote in the Senate.”
This is an extremely legitimate reason. However, I also see other issues that further justify this decision – which it is highly unlikely anyone at the University of Hartford would dare say publicly, so that’s what I’m going to do.
The story did mention that the “multicultural” groups were not happy with the how their voting rights were relinquished.
BSU and NHU representatives were outraged by the process in which they were stripped of their senatorship in SGA.
They were told that the new constitution would not be processed and given to the Board of Regents until the beginning of the fall semester, alotting time to appeal the decision.
Instead, the new constitution was submitted for approval during the summer, demoting BSU and NHU senators to representatives.
The president of the Brother & Sisters United (otherwise known as the Black Student Union), Ebony Wright, said, “Our senators were not formally notified of this change. Instead, they heard they were not senators through the grapevine.” Regardless of whether or not this is a genuine issue with them, I am not convinced this is where their anger comes from.
Surely, my suspicions were proven right with another quote from Ebony Wright, She said, “As minorities on this campus, we need to feel represented in SGA. Having our [organizational] senator would allow us to truly be represented.”
This is a lie. It is quite obvious that the minority students are attempting to use political correctness to pressure SGA to giving their clubs back senator positions so they can vote.
However, according to the article, “the system is designed for students to be represented in SGA in three ways: by expected year of graduation, by residence and by the school they are enrolled.” While I’ve not been able to obtain a copy of the Student Government Association’s constitution to verify this, I have faith that this has been looked into already by the author of this story.
Clubs such as BSU, NHU, Strong Independent Sisters (SIS), the Men of Color Alliance (MOCA), the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), the Caribbean American Student Association (CASA), SPECTRUM (the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender club), Hillel, and even the Newman Club, are all social clubs that congregate based on race, gender, ethnicity and religion. None of these clubs should have voting rights at SGA elections.
Not a single club whose purpose is the socializing of segregated groups based on the on race, gender, ethnicity and religion, (according to what the article says that SGA was designed to represent) are required to be represented for that purpose.
There is no reason why black students should have their own vote in student government.
There is no reason why Hispanic students should have their own vote in student government.
There is no reason why gay students should have their own vote in student government.
There is no reason why Jewish students should have their own vote in student government.
As a former student of the University of Hartford who was involved in many clubs, including Hillel, the social club for Jewish students, my interests were represented through my class senator, my dorm senator, and my college senator, Is there anything being voted on in the student government where my interests as a Jew could not have been represented through any of these other means? Absolutely not. As a Jew, I could bring my concerns to any of these senators to have my voice heard. The same goes for black students, Hispanic students, gay students, etc. etc. etc.
Perhaps the most ridiculous comment in the entire article was one by Garcia, “Clubs are extracurricular activities implemented for entertainment,” he said, “Without organizations such as NHU, there would not be programs like Hispanic Heritage Month in place to diversify campus life.”
First of all, clubs like NHU are social clubs implemented for socializing amongst a particular group of people. All other activities and programs held by these groups are put on primarily for fundraising, and to justify SGA allocating funds for that group for the following year.
These clubs are not mean to “diversify campus life.” What Garcia fails to understand is that the mere presence of Hispanics, blacks, or any other minority on campus is by definition the diversity of the student body. As a white student, who witness these kinds of programs Garcia mentioned, I was never embraced to participate is such programs or activities of that nature, and generally speaking, the minority group hosting them generally served other students of their minority group. While any group funded by the SGA cannot exclude any student from participating in an activity held by a club, or deny membership to a student from a club, these groups reflected homogeny. Diversity, while a euphemistic front for these groups, really is not their purpose.
While at the University of Hartford, another student once told me he and a friend of his were not let into a party hosted by BSU because they were white. While this may be hearsay, I had no reason at the time to believe that they were lying. Now, since this did not happen to me I cannot prove it, however, assuming that it is true, this reveals the true nature of at least one of the clubs.
While the word “diversity” will be excessively used by these groups in their appeal, having gone through four years at this school, I would hardly call the student body diverse socially – probably because of these clubs.
I had many meals in the University Commons, and I can tell you that more often than not, black students sit with the black students, the Hispanic students sit with the Hispanic students, Jewish students sit with the Jewish students… especially when they belong to one of these clubs. I was in the Jewish club, most often, when I ate with a group of friends, they were friends I had through Hillel. Whether it is intentional or incidental, is irrelevant, it’s just how it is.
The diversity argument is a fraud. I’ve seen it firsthand. These clubs are primarily social clubs, that promote the segregated socializing of these particular gender, racial, religious, ethnic and sexual-orientation based groups.
The article continued:
Members of SGA’s executive board asserted that if BSU and NHU were represented, then any club on campus would have the right to be represented also. Garcia and Faith Kolly were also on hand to dispute the claim that organizations such as BSU, NHU, SPECTRUM, and others are not clubs, but organizations put in place to serve the social and academic needs of their members.
My academic needs do not differ from another student who is a different race, gender, ethnicity, religion, or of a sexual orientation than I am. The last time I checked, 1 + 1 equals 2 for me and the black student who sat next me… or the girl who sat in front of me… or the Hispanic student who sat behind me… or the Christian who sat in the next row… or the gay student who was in or out of the closet.
To suggest these “multicultural” clubs serve the academic needs of their members is a lie.
Garcia was quoted one last time in the story, he said, “Remember the meaning of democracy - meaning social equality and respect for every individual in the community.” This sounds all warm and fuzzy to your politically correct campus liberal, however, this definition that Garcia has elected to use to represent what democracy means to him, really contrasts with his agenda. Social equality does not mean that minority groups are required to have their own vote in government. Democracy cannot not mean votes for each group of people. I belong to many groups that, according to Garcia, are worthy of representation. I am a Jew. I am white. I am heterosexual. I am left-handed. I have brown eyes. I have brown hair. I am a Republican. I can go on an on… While I am all those things, I do not feel that each group that I belong to deserves its own collective vote. There was nothing preventing me from starting clubs on campus any of those “groups” and demand SGA representation. Such a demand would have been ludicrous.
My interests as a student while I was at the University of Hartford had more than enough representation through my class senator, dorm senator, and school senator. The minority students demanding representation specific to their race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual-orientation are seeking special treatment they do not need, deserve, or have any right to.
Political correctness will be the sword they use in their battle to obtain this excessive representation in student government. I hope the SGA will continue to use common sense and fairness as their shield.
Response to Marcy Gotterbarn
Thursday, April 10th, 2003The 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.
Is There a Flaw in the System?
Tuesday, April 8th, 2003I only recently became aware of the fact that my Statement Regarding The SGA President made extremely significant waves on the University of Hartford campus. So significant in fact that Marcy Gotterbarn, the Editor-In-Chief of the Informer, wrote an article in response to the statement that I posted on my website. I was shocked, amazed, and very pleased that something on my website, by means of word-of-mouth only, found it’s way into the “public eye” of University of Hartford. According to Marcy, no report of the incident exists, and if there was, Hersh would not have been able to run for SGA to begin with.
This now brings up a serious issue because I have recently been confirmed through a third party that a report of the incident does in fact exist. With this in mind, I have only one question: If the report does in fact exist, is this an indication that potential candidates for Student Government are not properly screened as University policy says they should be? If this is so, than I fear the University is bound to experience even more embarressments in the future, like it experienced with T.J. Legg.
I am further investigating this matter and will hopefully have an update in the near future.
Latest Article in The Informer
Friday, March 28th, 2003A few weeks ago, I submitted an article for publication in The Informer the student newspaper of the University of Hartford about the walk-out and teach-in that occured on March 5th. Unfortunately, it was the week before Spring Break and there would be no issue for the next two weeks. But my piece has been posted in the Online Edition, so I’d encourage you all to read it. It is called Over 200 Rally Not for Peace - But Against Bush.. If you’re familiar with this website, you’ll know it is also posted here on MattMargolis.com.
Comments about my statement about the SGA President
Sunday, March 16th, 2003I’ve been contacted a few times already regarding my recent statement posted regarding the situation with the SGA President at the University of Hartford. Some people apparently feel that my personal opinions don’t need to be broadcasted to the University anymore since I’ve graduated.
Yes, I have graduated. But, for starters, my website is not dedicated to University of Hartford related issues - that is only one part of it. Second, I do not force anyone to view my website. I have the right to have an opinion about my alma mater.
More importantly, because of the increasingly political atmosphere at the university, somebody has to offer the students balance when it comes to the issues - and in some case I have to give them the truth. I do not feel that the University presently has an active voice on campus to present any balance or truth on current events or political issues. I am trying to do the right thing. The Progressive Student Alliance, other liberal groups and faculty need a counterweight to their propaganda and misinformation - othewise, most students will just accept their diatribe as truth. I cannot in good conscience let that happen. I will not “walk away” (as one e-mailer suggested) I will continue to offer balance and truth the University of Hartford.
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