Although I realize how busy every one of us is, particularly atthis time of year when final exams and the holiday season fastapproach, I wanted to communicate with you regarding the mascotreferendum being conducted this week by University President StephenWeber.
TheAssociated Students is the formal voice of students on this campus.Your elected student representatives on the A.S. Council havegrappled extensively with this issue. On Nov. 19, we approved aresolution that calls upon President Weber to postpone the mascotreferendum until the Spring 2004 semester and the proposed AztecWarrior be immediately removed from consideration as the SDSU mascot.It also recommends A.S. hold a campuswide contest beginning early2004 encouraging current students to submit non-human mascotproposals to the Cross Cultural Center Advisory Board – the finalselections of which are to be voted upon by the student body duringthe regular A.S. General Elections scheduled for March 2004.
As your A.S. president I support the position of the A.S. Council.The Council has reviewed extensive and pertinent informationregarding this issue, including the material contained on thefollowing Web sites. I strongly encourage you to become informedbefore you vote, and to take the time to visit the following Websites: http://www.as.sdsu.eduand http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~nasa/.
I look at this issue from a unique perspective. I personallybelieve the position of the council is a superior alternative to thecurrent referendum. This process avoids some of the flaws of thecurrent referendum. First, the current mascot referendum isundemocratic because all relevant and affected parties are notpermitted to participate. I fully believe including the whole campuscommunity is important, yet only students and those who have a paidaffiliation with the university are permitted to vote. SDSU facultyand staff members who have expressed concern about this issue aredisenfranchised in this process by not being permitted to vote.
Second, this referendum does not bring the larger San Diegocommunity together. The following organizations oppose the use ofNative mascots and/or this referendum: United States Commission onCivil Rights, National Association for the Advancement of ColoredPeople, American Civil Liberties Union, National EducationAssociation, California Teacher’s Association, University ofCalifornia Student Association, California Nations Indian GamingAssociation, Coalition of American Indian Organizations, NationalConference for Community and Justice, Los Angeles Unified SchoolDistrict, San Francisco Unified School District, San Diego AmericanIndian Advisory Board and SDSU University Senate, California FacultyAssociation of SDSU, Women’s studies, Africana studies, Chicana/ostudies and American Indian studies departments.
There are many SDSU organizations and departments opposed to theuse of human representation. Their members are urging President Weberto postpone this referendum and seek an injunction to prevent thevote on the latest human representation. Among the many campus-basedorganizations that oppose the referendum are the Afrikan StudentUnion, AB Samahan, Association of Chicana Activists, Lesbian GayBisexual Transgender Student Union, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano deAztl
