Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

MSA presidential debate last night: Affirmatively Coked up

21. March 2006 • David Boyle
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the Michigan Student Assembly presidential debate last night Sunday in Angell Hall “Auditorium D”. Televised debate, I was almost gonna say, but some “technical glitch” killed the Wolv TV part. Oh well, settle for a podcast, at least for pod people.
The entertainment highlight of the debate was the behavior of Ryan “Fast Food” Fantuzzi: this fine SC “Conservative, not Change” P gentleman, sporting some physical resemblance to Pat Buchanan, also sported (see the Daily article Debate focuses on ruling party’s record: Students vying for MSA presidency clash over ideologies, platforms) a bottle of…Coke, which he swigged with alarming frequency. (Caffeine will do this.) As Daily also says, R “FF” F didn’t know what the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities (“The Code”) was; and he also called out certain parties’ “radical ideas, bad ideas, and no ideas” (guess which respective parties he meant). Finally, he also talked about bringing Taco Bell to campus, and discussed the Steak Deluxe burrito he recently had at Big Ten Burrito…whether with “Coke” or not, he failed to say.
No endorsement for SCP from THIS commentator. (“yet”).

As for others: Monica Smith of DAAP assiduously affirmed affirmative action, several times; and re (in alphabetical order) Rese Fox of MPP and Nicole Stallings of S4M—I shall not go into great detail about the rest of the debate, especially since the Daily covered a lot of it.
From my scribbled notes, though, I recall that: Fox gave a strong performance, with some high points being her talking about use of her blog to communicate ideas to people and her detailing 501©(3) issues about MSA and the rights of student groups to lobby; but I do not recall her saying anything re affirmative action or MCRI (though the MPP online “written” platform, unlike SCP’s or S4M’s, does endorse aff action and condemn MCRI). And Stallings said a lot of worthwhile things, with some high points being her listing S4M’s achievements and her mentioning her personal (not S4M party) involvement with One United Michigan and SSAA for affirmative action; but I could not tell how her emphasis on S4M members’ freedom to vote however they wanted, squared with the existence of an S4M party platform, or squared with the varying declarations of S4M being either “progressive” or “experienced”.

And as before: no endorsement of any candidate or party by this author, especially this late in the “game”. (I am about to post something else on the election, but not an endorsement.) Get ready to vote though!!!

”...The massive, frustrated energies of a mainly young, disillusioned electorate that has long since abandoned the idea that we all have a duty to vote. This is like being told you have a duty to buy a new car, but you have to choose immediately between a Ford and a Chevy.”—Hunter S. Thompson, “Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ‘72”

  1. Speaking of Coke: see, e.g., today’s Freep, U. of Mich. to resume buying Coke after company agrees to reviews ,

    “The University of Michigan on Tuesday agreed to resume the purchase of Coca-Cola products, saying it was satisfied with plans for two investigations into the company’s labor and environmental practices in Colombia and India.
    The university, which has more than 50,000 students on its three campuses, is among at least 12 schools that had joined a Coke boycott. Michigan stopped buying Coca-Cola products for vending machines, residence halls, cafeterias and campus restaurants on Jan. 1 after the school and the company were unable to come to an agreement on the procedures for third-party reviews on practices by Coca-Cola Co. and its bottling plants in the two countries.
    ...Coca-Cola is now supporting a review of its labor practices in Colombia by the International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency. The ILO agreed to conduct the investigation on March 24.
    In a letter Monday to Michigan executive vice president Tim Slottow, Donald Knauss, president of Coca-Cola North America, said it was in talks with The Energy and Resources Institute, an Indian nonprofit, to examine practices in India. Knauss said a plan would be finalized by the end of the month. ...”


       —David Boyle (UM to START BUYING COKE AGAIN!!)    Apr. 11 '06 - 09:02PM    #