To the President of Ohio University, and staff therein:
I am the parent of a current sophomore at Ohio University. Until recent events, I was a proud parent with a very happy, involved pre-med daughter who loved her school. Now, I am deeply upset to find she questions her personal safety and no longer feels represented by the Student Senate president in a place she now calls home.
I am compelled to speak up as a parent, as a Jewish person and as someone who values the rights of all people -— not just those in places of power.
As you have heard repeatedly from parents, lawmakers, students and observers, I too am appalled by the actions of your Student Senate president. Megan Marzec has embarrassed the university on a national, perhaps even international, level. Of this, there is no question. Her abhorrent, inappropriate and vicious video made far more of a statement than perhaps she intended.
That she does not understand this is clear; she has made no apology for any portion of her behavior and in fact chooses to continue to use her position to forward her personal beliefs.
While the discussions about Israel and Palestine are timely and certainly of interest to many, the issue for Ohio University needs to be immediately refocused back to the REAL problem at hand which is not the misguided and factually incorrect BDS movement and not Israel vs. Palestine. The problem at Ohio University right now is that the elected Student Senate president openly abused her power and position by pushing her personal agenda while clearly identifying as the president, which tacitly suggests support of the students of the university at large. She no longer represents the student body; she represents herself.
The students elected her to represent all of them, and with that appointment came great responsibility, responsibility to lead even those with whom she may disagree. Having chosen to state in her repugnant video that she was performing this act in her position as president, in response to a challenge from the university president and later arriving at Student Senate meetings clearly focused on her personal agenda (by wearing personal political buttons in her stead as president) is reason alone for her to be removed from a position she clearly is not capable of holding or understanding.
It is further incredibly disturbing to me that Ohio University professors, in whose classrooms my daughter may one day need to sit, attended a student meeting and screamed violent epithets at their very own students. The particular professor from the School of Film without a doubt should receive a reprimand for this unbelievable behavior — I am astounded Ohio University supports its educators behaving in such a manner toward the student body it is supposed to educate, train and nurture.
The arrests of the four students at the Student Senate meeting (and only those four students, despite loud, angry and violent behavior from far more than those four) sends a frightening message about who can and who cannot speak freely at Ohio University and that apparently Megan Marzec believes free speech holds for her but not those who disagree with her.
Freedom of speech is frequently misquoted, misunderstood and used conveniently by those who insist on being heard but do not wish to be confronted. It is well noted that in Whitney v. California, the court found, “If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”
Perhaps, Ms. Marzec was aware that if the other side was allowed to speak freely, she would be shown to be racist, narrow-minded and uneducated and without any ability for forethought to her actions. It is a good thing Megan Marzec is in college. She would well benefit from taking a few courses in government, history and public relations, for starters. Then perhaps she can revisit running for an office that represents a variety of people with interests other than her own.
She also might want to consider apologizing to all those with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and their charity foundation at large, for such an ugly hijacking of a worthy cause for her own purposes is without excuse. I am sure Dr. McDavis did not intend for his well-intended challenge on behalf of ALS to be abused in such a horrible manner, but because he issued the challenge, it connects her act to the Office of the President as well.
I hope Ohio University does the right thing in this matter and removes Megan Marzec as president of the Student Senate. She is not upholding the office to which she was elected and does not understand her responsibilities therein. My daughter and the students at large deserve a president who represents them all, and does so with respect for all.
Elizabeth Gloger is a parent of an Ohio University student.
