"WE HAVE WRITTEN TO YOU ABOUT THIS ISSUE... AND IT HAS BEEN REPEATEDLY IGNORED!"

On February 2nd, Students for a Democratic Society mic checked the Spring semester's first Board of Trustees meeting. The Board once again conducted their meeting in an undemocratic fashion by not allowing students from the public to speak and ignoring the letters they sent in (see the posts below).

The 10+ students who attended this meeting expressed their frustrations by yelling such things as, "STUDENTS ARE ALLOWED TO SPEAK AT RUTGERS MEETINGS!" So why can't students speak at Montclair?

"WE ARE UNDER THE IMPRESSION... THAT THE ADMINISTRATORS... ARE ONLY CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR REPUTATIONS (and their wallets)... AND NOT WHAT THE STUDENTS HAVE TO SAY!" If they were truly concerned about what the students have to say, then why have they not properly addressed our question as to why students cannot speak at these meetings. President Susan Cole has merely stated that the way this Board has conducted their meetings has been the same way for decades. This is just a pathetic excuse, not a proper response. It has been long overdue for a change. As student fees and tuition continue to make up a larger part of Montclair State Unviersity's budget, students deserve more representation and more of a say as to how their money is spent. Therefore, it does not make sense that state law only permits 2 Student Trustees (only 1 of which can vote) along with 10+ out of touch Trustees who are bureaucratically appointed by the governor to serve on the Board.

President Cole has shown no signs of taking an initiative to allow students to speak at Board meetings. As proof, here is a biased, pro-administration press release about the mic check by the Montclarion, Montclair State University's school newspaper: http://www.themontclarion.org/archives/3743392 The Montclarion has refused to acknowledge the obvious slant of this article as the letters to the editor from SDS members were rejected (as they always are).

"AND DR. SUSAN COLE... REFUSED TO COMMENT INITIALLY... TILL THE NEWS GOT OUT... IT WASN'T UNTIL STUDENTS SPREAD... THE WORD THAT SHE PRETENDED TO CARE!"

In addition to lambasting the Board for not allowing students to speak at these meetings, President Cole was directly criticized for her handling of recent death threats made to MSU's LGBT community. The mic check was led by Alan Akins, the President of SPECTRUMS - the main LGBT group on campus. When the death threats against the LGBT community were first reported, President Cole considered it to be a non-issue. Days later, Akins sent out a mass e-mail informing the student body of what had transpired. He also mentioned how the administration had chosen to not respond to the death threats. When the administration found out about Akins' e-mail and that the media would be coming to campus the following day to report on the death threats, President Cole panicked and sent out a mass e-mail of her own to finally express her concern about the issue. It took her long enough to respond. Akins and SDS made it known to President Cole that her initial ignorance would not be tolerated and not go unnoticed.

An alternate angle of the mic check which was recently uploaded can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIwkdFOnE2M