The Rocky Mountain Collegian

The actions taken by Phil Lyons and the Student Government Association election committee, in response to a grievance regarding biased and negative student media coverage of the SGA race, are incredibly unsettling.

Their treatment of the SGA Truth Web site, administrated by junior Jim Swift, as a legitimate source of news is absurd. By declaring that it affected important election decisions , Lyons and the committee gave Swift and the Web site more credit than they deserved.

Anyone can discern, after viewing Swift's Web site, that it presents a biased, singular viewpoint: For example, "Cari Johns is hot" is not a valid critique. Relying on SGA Truth as your only source of information about SGA is like watching The Daily Show as your only source of national news.

By calling SGA Truth legitimate, Lyons & Co. belittle the intelligence of the entire student populace. If a student has not yet gained the ability to think critically enough to see this bias, then mommy and daddy have wasted $90,000 on their child's Saint Louis University education. The money would have been better spent on a condo in Florida.

The committee's response to SGA Truth's negative publicity of the candidates was taken under the auspices of an SGA election guideline that states that SGA candidates must be responsible for all their supporter's actions-which is itself a ridiculous rule. Candidates cannot control what their supporters do and say any more than Bush or Kerry could. As Cari Johns had SGA Truth to support her ticket, Andrew Chappelle and Chris Wipke could have-and should have-had Web sites sponsored by their supporters.

The difference between the candidates' posters and what Swift posted on his Web site is that what Swift wrote was negative. But negative comments-both true and untrue-were made frequently during the debates and candidates were not sanctioned for them. And when harsh rumors about the candidates were passed down the bar at Humphrey's, no sanctions were imposed.

Clearly, negative publicity is not uncommon during elections. Though we hate to acknowledge it, such mudslinging seems to be inherent in politics.

Understandably, if SGA Truth were a legitimate news source-and it is not-such overt bias and negativity would require action by the SGA commission. In that case, Swift's admitted personal ties with the candidates on the Students First ticket would be inappropriate, because Swift would be in a position of power to impact the elections. But by those same standards, Phil Lyons' friendship with Chappelle should have been considered before Lyons was put in any position in the mediation process.

It is important that students remember that the opinions of any group-legitimate or not-are that group's alone, and should never be the sole motivation of anyone's decision. They should collect differing opinions, weigh their options and then make an informed decision based upon all of the evidence. Anyone who allows themselves to be swayed by the opinions presented by one person, organization or Web site would be doing themselves and their community-in this case, the University-a grave disservice.

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