Droves of students spoke out at Wednesday’s Student Senate meeting in response to President Megan Marzec’s Ice Bucket Challenge video.
When Megan Marzec, a senior studying studio art, dumped a bucket of what she called “blood” over her head in a video posted Tuesday, she started with a simple introduction.
“As Student Senate president I am sending a message of student concern of the genocide in Gaza,” she said in the first ten seconds of the roughly 50-second video. She called on Ohio University to distance itself from what she called “atrocities” in Palestine instigated by Israel.
Dozens of students attended Student Senate’s meeting Wednesday night to speak out against Marzec voicing her opinions while identifying herself as senate president.
“After watching your Ice Bucket Challenge, I am appalled by the actions you took,” said Max Peltz, a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity, during Student SpeakOUt. “Not only did you defeat the purpose of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, but you diverted the public’s attention to an issue on which most are uneducated.”
Many students said she was taking a position they did not agree with and, as the student representative of OU, she should not have done so.
“This bucket of blood symbolizes the thousands of displaced and murdered ... atrocities which OU is directly complacent with,” Marzec said in the video.
She told The Post the contents of the bucket were actually red paint, tomato juice and water.
Marzec posted the video Tuesday after she was challenged by OU President Roderick McDavis to the popular ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which aims to raise awareness and funds for disease research. Instead, she used the opportunity to ask the university to divest from Israel, economically and intellectually.
“President McDavis did issue the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to the Student Senate president in an effort to extend fundraising and awareness of the ALS cause to the student body,” said Stephanie Filson, OU’s Director of External Communications, in an email to The Post. “Although the president welcomes discussion on any and all issues of concern to students, there have not yet been any meetings between the Student Senate president and President McDavis.”
The video sparked conversation among some senate alumni as well.
“The Society of Alumni and Friends condemns the recent actions of Student Senate President Megan Marzec to exploit her position and title to make a personal political statement … without the endorsement of the Student Senate general body or the Ohio University student body,” said Ron Minto, vice president of the senate alumni society and a 1998 graduate of OU, in an email.
Senate responded Wednesday afternoon by apologizing via Twitter for Marzec’s video. Jeff Billingslea, director of public relations for senate, said the tweet is “on behalf of Student Senate,” describing it as a “collective apology.”
Marzec said she would have preferred if the response had distanced senate from the video, not apologize for it.
“Student Senate is not culpable for the video,” she said. “It was my own prerogative.”
Rabbi Danielle Leshaw, executive director of Hillel, also did not agree with Marzec’s position on divesting from the country.
“Divestment is counter-productive and falsely paints the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a black and white issue while ignoring the true complexity and nuance of the situation,” she said. “We encourage the embrace of nuance and believe the Ohio University community can be both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian.”
Some students called for her to separate herself from her executive position in senate altogether.
“We do not feel comfortable with you representing our student body,” Peltz said. “With that, on behalf of Alpha Epsilon Pi and its members, Bobcats for Israel and the entire pro-Israel community we ask for your resignation.”
— Anjelica Oswald, Olivia Hitchcock and Dina Berliner contributed to this report.
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