Our Opposition- The differences, the history, the conflict

Our Opponents

Background

Two years ago, a group of students representing fundamentalism and a complete disregard for belief systems or ways of life other than their own took office in the Student Association.  These are their actions:

·         Endorsed and actively campaigned in favor of Proposition 8 despite protest and outrage from thousands of American River College Students.  It was clear from the beginning of this Endorsement that our opponents had no intention of honoring their duty to their students as elected officials. This was nothing more than their personal agenda, caring nothing for the wishes of their student body. This endorsement received national media attention, causing significant damage to the image and reputation of our college.  ARC became known as a college of bigotry and hate, leading many students to leave the college. 

·         Active opposition to the Day of Silence, a day recognizing the persecution of LGBTQ community members.  You Tube Videos are available showing the disrespectful and appalling mistreatment of ARC students supporting the day of silence.  Our opponents can be seen actively participating in attempting to humiliate members of this peaceful rally.  These are members of the Student Association elected to represent all ARC students, but on this day, just on of many, they did much more than just turn their back on their student body, they metaphorically spat on them.

·         Active opposition to Earth Day, a day simply celebrating respect for our environment and nature.  Our opponents actively opposed Earth Day, citing the celebration as pagan worship and not consistent with the teachings of Jesus Christ.  On this occasion, our opponents once again failed to fulfill their responsibility to represent the student body.  It is absolutely appalling and perverse to manipulate a religion in order to demonize a celebration meant for all the inhabitants of our planet.  This type of dogmatic rhetoric has no place in student leadership.

·         Unethical Business Practices and Unpaid Bills: Our opponents delivered student projects not to the lowest bidder, but to their friends, then left office without paying the bills.  Director of Finance and Student for Change John Throm uncovered over $7,000 in unpaid bills accrued by our opponents in office, including a $2,000 bill for T-Shirts from a Slavic community business who was neither the lowest bidder or an established vendor for American River College.  These business practices only more clearly compound the evidence that our opposition took office not to represent the student body, but their own selfish interests.

·         Attempted Siphoning of Student Funds: In the most significant scandal of the former Student Association, our opponents attempted to give $5,000 of student funds to a Slavic fundamentalist newspaper that provided no recorded or visible service to the student body.  It is still unanswered what these funds were being used for, but it at least clear it was not to benefit the student body.  A leader of the fundamentalist paper was seen weeks after the scandal actively campaigning with our opponents.

Their Campaign Tactics

In our winning campaign to remove our opponents from office, they focused their campaign not on issues or a legitimate platform, but on demonizing the Students for Change.  Photoshoped images of Students for Change presidential candidate David Fisher were developed to depict the Students for Change as the “gay ticket” rather than the campaign of candidates representing the diversity of our campus.

Rather than clearly defining their campaign platform, they chose to attempt to confuse students by generating a campaign name similar to the Students for Change and by copying our most prominent platform issues. The “Students for Liberty” and their fictitious platform was their attempt to capitalize on our hard work to communicate our platform to the student body

Today

One year after our victory, they are back.  We do not yet know the exact names of their candidates, but we do know that they stand for the same backwards agenda that the former Student Association stood for two years ago, and the same bigotry the Students for Liberty stood for one year ago.  We also know that they are organized by the same puppet master that has developed their agenda for over two years, Luke Otterstad.