Student Senate President Megan Marzec appeared to dump a bucket of blood on herself in a video posted Tuesday, in which she asked Ohio University to distance itself from what she called "atrocities" in Palestine.
Student Senate President Megan Marzec appeared to dump a bucket of blood on herself in an online video posted Tuesday, in which she called on Ohio University to distance itself from what she called "atrocities" in Palestine instigated by Israel.
"This bucket of blood symbolizes the thousands of displaced and murdered ... atrocities which OU is directly complacent with," she can be heard saying in the video, though she told The Post the contents of the bucket were actually red paint, tomato juice and water and were meant to symbolize blood.
The video prompted Senate on Wednesday to apologize for her statements.
Jeff Billingslea, director of public relations for Senate, said the tweet is "on behalf of Student Senate," describing it as a "collective apology."
Marzec, reached by The Post on Wednesday afternoon, echoed those sentiments, though she would not say if she personally felt the need to apologize or retract her statements. She said the video was her speaking as an individual, separate from her Senate role. But in the video, Marzec can be heard saying she did her bucket challenge "as Student Senate president" expressing "student concern." (Check out The Post's collection of tweets from students, alumni and others.)
She added Wednesday that she did not direct Billingslea to make the tweet from the official Senate account.
Marzec apparently made the video after she was challenged by OU President Roderick McDavis to the popular ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Instead, she used the opportunity to ask the university to divest from Israel, economically and intellectually.
"I am urging you and OU to divest and cut all ties with academic and other Israeli institutions and business," she said.
University spokeswoman Stephanie Filson provided an university statement in response to Marzec’s video. Here's that statement, provided via email, in its entirety:
"The role and value of a higher education institution is to foster civil discussions about important and complex issues. To be sure, the Student Senate president in her video altered the original spirit with which President Roderick J. McDavis issued the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Her actions do not reflect the position of Ohio University or President McDavis. We recognize the rights of individual students to speak out on matters of public concern and we will continue to do so, but want to be clear that the message shared today by her is not an institutional position or a belief held by President McDavis."
Here's the video:
@ThePostCampus
This is a developing story. Please check back here for an updated story and follow @ThePost for the latest.
