The Washington Square News has brought the scandal involving now-former NYU College of Arts and Sciences Student Council president Meredith Dolgin to a new level with a Flash Scandal at CAS interactive. Want to know the timeline? Or background on the players? Or what's even being investigated (election impropriety, financial malfeasance)? It's there!
And the WSN reported that Dolgin stepped down and tried to install a new president to the Student Council, which the adviser, associate dean Anita Farrington-Brathwaite, stopped:
"This is your council," Farrington-Brathwaite said to the nearly 40 students assembled. "But as your advisor to the council, I will not let this meeting be adjourned without me speaking." Farrington-Brathwaite continued, "What I've just witnessed here is the rushing through a process that was taken very seriously by an investigation. … What I've witnessed here - I don't even know what words I have."
Dolgin sat silently with the other members of the council. Farrington-Brathwaite asked her whether she planned to issue the executive order requested by the investigative committee.
Dolgin responded by saying she was no longer the president and told Farrington-Brathwaite that [lone presidential candidate Michael] Atkins was now the council leader.
"This president does not exist!" Farrington-Brathwaite yelled, pointing at Atkins. "If we accept this election - your CAS student community will not accept this. You'll be signing the end of student council."
"This is unethical," she continued. "This is not the way to bring in new officers."
Atkins was the only presidential candidate after the new Student Council elections committee - made up of Dolgin and two allies, after Dolgin had disbanded the original one - and disqualified other potential opponents' petitions.
A few of our readers weighed in about the situation yesterday:
NYU Alum: "I must add, that NYU's bureaucracy almost encourages corruption. basically you get a budget and if you use it all, the following year you might get an increase. If you have any left over, you probably will get a budget cut. So there is this certain driving force to spending all of your money and sometimes you get creative."
NYU Administrator: "This stuff is just the tip of the iceberg. There's much, much more to this story, and when it all comes out, hoo-boy!"
We mostly just want to look in dumpsters for the posters that Tracy Flick threw out.
