Piotti
faces potential recall
By
Zamná Ávila
On-line Forty-Niner
The
Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall election is
approaching with the usual debates and accusations
that surround politics. Political controversy
concerning elected officials is not limited
to national, state and local government
-- student governments in college campuses
are also vulnerable to these challenges.
An
e-mail directed to members of the Campus
Progressives mailing list Sept. 7 requesting
the support and dissemination of its contents
to Cal State Long Beach students and staff
is evidence of how the political arena is
non-confined. The e-mail signed by CSULB
graduated student Jeb Sprague had "Recall
Guido Piotti from ASI" as its subject
heading.
The
e-mail arose from the Sept. 3 visit of gubernatorial
candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger to the CSULB
campus. The e-mail accused Guido Piotti,
vice president of the Associated Students
Inc., of "violating the bi-laws of
the A.S.I. constitution [and using] CSULB
campus, facilities and fees to finance his
personal endorsement of Arnold Schwarzenegger."
During the event, Piotti threw T-shirts
reading "Join Arnold" to the audience
who waited for the candidate's appearance.
Last
Wednesday the Campus Progressives held their
first meeting for the fall 2003 semester.
At the meeting Piotti, who attended unexpectedly
requested, "I would like to know what
do to correct something that may have been
interpreted the wrong way."
"I
was playing to the crowd's excitement and
having fun with them," said Piotti.
However,
the organization denied involvement in the
alleged recall campaign, which according
to the e-mail was being undertaken by the
History Students Association, a statement
that was also retracted at the meeting.
"It
was not the Campus Progressives nor HSA,
but a student from HSA," Elisa Herrera
said.
Members
at the meeting declared their concerns to
Piotti about how CSULB students were denied
access to the stands, which they alleged
were reserved for College Republicans and
off-campus republican supporters of Schwarzenegger.
According
to Danny Vivián, A.S.I. president,
there are limitations in dealing with political
and religious groups that visit the campus.
The event was financed by Schwarzenegger's
campaign.
"We
would not use student fees to pay for stands.
If they pay for it, to an extent they have
some rights. However, I don't know it was
all republicans on the stands," Vivián
said.
But
Herrera, who had initially discussed with
Sprague investigating and possibly taking
action against how the event was handled
questions, "Was it for the students
at CSULB or was it just to put on a show
for Schwarzenegger and his supporters.
Especially since a lot of people out there
were not CSULB students," said Herrera.
"The recall was more of an investigation
issue first to see whose idea it was, who
was funding it and what was A.S.I. involvement."
According
to Herrera, Guido was on stage emphasizing
how Schwarzenegger specifically came here
and other candidates did not come and throwing
the T-shirts was an indirect endorsement
of him.
"What
is on the T-shirts is a symbol of something,
that's what they do to catch people's eyes
and attract people to the campaign,"
she said.
Herrera
requested a copy of the A.S.I. constitution
to investigate neutrality and see if there
were students who wanted to rally.
Sprague,
who said that the email sent out was not
meant for people outside the Progressives
and that the discussion was not concrete
enough to know if they wanted to spend time
on it after they presented it to the Progressives
and HSA, used an analogy to compare Piotti's
actions. "What would happened if Diane
Feinstein threw T-shirts with Gray Davis'
name?"
Piotti
responded by saying it was a fair comparison,
as Feinstein is a full-pledged politician
who has publicly spoken against the recall.
Piotti defended his position by clarifying
that the campus is a public forum owned
by the state in which anyone can speak.
"I
never said I support Arnold," said
Piotti. "Saying that Arnold was the
only one that agreed to come was a challenge
to other candidates to come to our campus."
Piotti
also cited that open questions were not
allowed by the Scwarzenegger campaign for
security reasons as the venue in which it
was held may have possibly led to a security
issues such as riots.
"A.S.I.
clearly stated in the papers and flyers
that we do not support or endorse any candidates.
It is unfortunate that an event put on with
good intentions was misconstrued by some
people," Piotti said.
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