61 Comments
Earlier this evening, University Senator Tiffany Dockery CC ’09 resigned her seat in a letter to the Student Affairs Caucus. Dockery, last year’s BSO president, was on trial for impeachment for not attending enough meetings of the Student Affairs Caucus.
In her letter, Dockery lists several reasons for her resignation, including her belief that “there are certain structural issues that preclude me from achieving many of the things that I aimed to do as a progressive student of color.”
She also addressed her repeated absences, citing personal family reasons as well as over-commitment. She closed by saying “I have displayed my commitment to the Senate through my work in the Columbia College Student Council.”
UPDATE 12:38 AM: Earlier, we had mistakenly posted the entirely of the Dockery email when we had only meant to excerpt quotes. The email was only on the site for about 45 minutes, and we removed it as soon as we realized our mistake. We sincerely apologize that it was posted at all. — Ed.
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61 Comments
@one word Starts with a B and ends with “itch”
@Correction Correction starts an effing and ends with a bitch
@good.. i thought so.
@sophomore (again) And just out of curiosity, what do ppl think about Monica Quaintance?
@sophomore Be on the look out for much more gossip once CCSC APPOINTS Tiffany’s replacement.
@ok . well according to spec, the sac co chairs were going to sit down and talk with her before her impeachment. sounds like she a) didn’t think the title was of use for her anymore
@Good call Best idea I’ve heard all week
@p.s. what about aretha choi resigning?
@seriously rajat: you have an ego bigger than you can handle. get over yourself, you douchebag.
@oy vey 1) “She was elected by her peers because she is known to be uniquely qualified.”
Really? I mean no disrespect to Tiffany and other students involved in governance, but you’re giving way too much credit to the decision making processes of your peers. Please…
2) CCSC and the other councils have no control over University policy. They can make statements until they’re blue in the face, but they have no weight.
3) The USenate on the other hand is a decision making body with actual power. The problem is that undergraduate students fill 7 seats out of over 90 in a body that’s otherwise largely made up of tenured faculty and administrators who, unlike the students, will be here for a very long time. Because of the high rate of turnover among the student caucus, they have little weight as a bloc – they can be waited out.
That being said, the University Senator is your spokesperson in front of the faculty and administration on issues like ROTC and Manhattanville at the meetings where these policies are discussed with consequence.
Choose carefully?
@welll i doubt there is any sort of racism involved. AND make that two indian senators currently. Though the other one in Columbia College I hear is chill.
@racism? two indian seas senators in a row. there’s racism for ya. Don’t know the current one, but I know that the only thing the last one knew how to do was talk his ass off.
As a general rule, only incompetent people need titles. Competent people get shit done without a fancy title. And if you’ve got a big title in 5 different clubs, that doesn’t mean you’re super-competent, it just means you don’t know where the fuck to devote your time.
@huh? What’s wrong with posting the entirety of the e-mail? And why was it taken down?
@hm... Yeah I don’t really see what’s wrong with posting the e-mail.
GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE TRANSPARENT
@wait listen tiffany wasnt doing her job. this was not a question of race. our fucking president is black so the affirmative action card needs to be fucking pulled. its just a stupid excuse shes using in her letter. i bet you she got her “job” and decided not to stick around anymore because the title was of no use to her.
@"41:Agreed" (again) #42: You deserve to go into hiding with Raj.
Tiffany Dockery is a very intelligent, personable, and an overall-good person. She was elected by her peers because she is known to be uniquely qualified. I do not know what circumstances prevented her from finishing her term as Senator, but she does not deserve your ignorant, race-baiting bullshit.
Tiffany belongs in the Columbia community, and she does not need to justify herself to anyone, especially your racist self.
@affirmative action say it with me now… AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
@seriously Raj, Mr. “SEAS Senator”, all the NROTC issue really showed was how fucked up, incompetent, and tactless the Councils are, particularly the Senators, particularly, yourself. You brought an issue to campus that nobody but you called for, and hten you decided to disregard the results when it didn’t fit your ideological view. What a tool you are.
@Agreed Raj, you really need to go into hiding for awhile. Your self-aggrandizing ridiculousness demonstrates one of the many reasons why there is so much on-campus contempt for all of the University councils.
SEAS Senator Post #22: “The recent NROTC and Manhattanville debates show that Senators have more sway at a real level than even Council Presidents.”
Please shut up. Not only was the Senate totally incapable of doing anything on either front that you cite, but few students even know what you do (presumably, because you do little – to – nothing).
@seriously Rajat, cram it. You beat off to yourself more than anyone else at this school, and that’s really saying something.
You, Mr. SEAS Senator, have greatly overestimated your value to this campus. You and I BOTH know how the CU Senate really operates, and it hasn’t done a single damn thing since either of us came here.
So please, take everyone’s advice and disappear from the public life. If you’re really as into your work as a senator as you SAY you are, then you don’t need our congratulations anyway–you should be perfectly fine working behind the scenes.
@seriously the role of University Senator is your dedication to the Senate, not to CCSC. stupid
@Sad Regardless of any of the discussion above, I would say it is journalistic practice to publish a public official’s resignation letter. I’m not sure how or why you’ve chosen to strike a deal with her individually, and I’m not sure how fair it is.
@really? As one of Dockery’s constituents, I feel I have the right to read her letter of resignation. Of course it’s not “private:” US senators can’t have a secret resignation. Dockery should have realized this, and Bwog should repost the letter.
@you're a joke as if being a Student Senator is even comparable to being a US senator – i mean seriously, this girl is probably under 20 years old – her level of responsibility is minimal if anything – and still deserves the privacy entitled to the sensitivity of her issues. The fact that you think you are part of some constituency that even matters and further think you’re entitled to some stupid letter is laughable – if you knew how the senate operated, you’d realize they rarely talk about anything that is really important to their constituency.
@wati.. so public officials who were writing a letter to the body they were elected to now have confidentiality rights that ‘media/gossip’ organizations like bwog respect?
the story here is that a media outlet like bwog actually took down a leaked letter from a campus politician because they wanted to be nice—i’m sure they’d have afforded the same privilege to a krebs or kulawik
@GSer Oh please, the GSSC delegate to the University Senate never shows up for anything and never does anything. All these positions are so bogus.
@... THANK you. these positions are nothing more than resume-beefers. any accomplishments are minor and unimportant. University senate has absolutely no say in the real problems of the university.
@rishika samant is the only competent university senator.
@wise alum this is what you get when you let incompetent ‘progressive students of color’ get your pity vote.
there’s enough affirmative action in the world, CU senate should be as much of a meritocracy as possible.
@Hrrm Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Because resigning from a post because of scheduling conflicts and time commitments is definitely a sign of incompetence, right?
I also appreciate that you single Dockery out in your criticism and don’t mention Gu’s resignation. I guess she’s a model minority and didn’t resign because of incompetence.
Wise alum, I’m glad that you’re old enough to have graduated and taken your poorly developed opinions somewhere else, but young enough that you’re still reading undergraduate blogs rather than sitting on a pile of money I should be concerned about in regards to donations.
I also appreciate that you are so inclined to label yourself as “wise.” I think I’ve learned a lot from you. From now on, I’m going to make racial criticisms of people I don’t know, and I’ll prefix my name with self-laudatory adjectives like “swift-footed” and “big-dicked.”
@that comment was completely uncalled for. who ever said that tiffany dockery got anybody’s pity vote or that she won her senate seat due to some sort of electoral affirmative action? tiffany was the most qualified, competent person for the job in the eyes of the electorate, so she won. your comment is baseless and absurd.
@Sorry but... Clearly, Tiffany Dockery was NOT the most qualified, competent because she did not have enough time to invest in U Senate, hence, the reason for her resignation.
That’s not to say that she isn’t or wasn’t qualified, but taking on a U Senate position is not a small responsibility, and she misjudged how much responsibility she could handle. Simple as that.
And that said, I hope Freeland gets the position. Having talked to the guy more than once, he’s a person who knows what he’s doing.
@doo doo doo CAN’T STOP THIS.
do you think billy isn’t reading the other comments? at least he has a new comp this time!
@Er, Shouldn’t the University Senator for Student Affairs have informed the students whose interests she is representing that she is resigning as opposed to us finding out through a campus gossip blog that picked up a leaked letter?
@anyways well i read her entire letter when Bwog posted it. Some of her arguments do not make sense, like the point about a sign that she didnt connect with any of her sac members. How could she connect with any of them if she never went to any of the meetings?
Secondly, her letter should not be private. A letter of resignation is meant to be public.
thirdly, who is left to be impeached? Mark Johnson?
@P.S. I still have the email in my cache. maybe i’ll post it out of spite.
@butt or rather cover up
@sooooooo sounds like this letter is trying to save her from an imminent impeachment
@Monica go to sleep. its late.
@Lili Gu resigned earlier this year as the SEAS 2010 VP. Where was BWOG?
@SEAS Senator I’ll start off with a few things.
First, NEVER try to insult or defame Lili Gu. She did more for CC, SEAS and BC than you will ever imagine. Her dedication was unparalleled.
Second, I do not believe that it was appropriate for any Senator to have sent out this email to any public source (although it was also sent to the Krebs administration so let’s not jump to conclusions here…)
Third and finally, I do believe that students should take their elections very seriously and fully analyze their candidates (the recent NROTC and Manhattanville debates show that Senators have more sway at a real level than even Council Presidents). There is a reason why there are debates – it is the time for the constituency to really examine those who are going to represent them. This is not a criticism of Tiffany’s behavior. Rather it is a general comment.
@raj, please shut up
@the entire campus wishes you would shut up raj.
@waitttttt who else is on senate?
@Lil Weezy Jeezy Sorry, but if she knew that she would have such an intense semester, she should not have run in the first place. Billy Freeland (the guy who missed the senate just barely) would not have missed those meetings. I think the University should give the position to Billy, he seemed smart enough to do it. But I do agree, the publishing of the latter was pretty uncalled for.
@ummm are you billy freeland? because I sure wouldnt have remember the name of that kid. How will she be replaced?
@The Matador Billy Freeland! Wasn’t he that kid that had those annoying red signs all over the place last year? I also saw them in SIPA about a month ago…Eh, some dude that I don’t remember that well. I only remember that he didn’t look too good in his posters, so I voted for Dockery instead. I say lets have a runoff! I also wonder where that dud is now…
@gotta love that we can track your comments
@lolz! well played. and billy freeland….sucks for you man.
@Nicely done And embarrassing for #24 (and #7)And #18 called it. I love Bwog.
@why does being a “student of color” have ANYthing to do with this? And what is this “progressive” bit? Are other “students of color” regressive? My condolences for her loss, but why must race enter into every conversation?
@Because... it DIDN’T enter into every conversation – it entered into A conversation that was supposed to be between her and a particular group idiot. Don’t take one letter written by one person and extrapolate it in an effort to make an argument out of nothing.
This girl deserves to be left alone – i can’t believe people are being critical of her and not the BWOG for publishing this. Ridiculous.
@Public Figure What on earth should be private about an ELECTED OFFICIAL’s letter of resignation? By running for Senate, you seek out public attention and must therefore give up some degree of privacy, but particularly as it relates to your ability, or lack thereof, to do your job.
Honestly, if she cared about her privacy, this girl should have googled “letter of resignation” and taken the advice of the Internet, which is: keep it short, for the love of god. Even Nixon’s resignation letter was only a single sentence.
http://www.watergate.info/nixon/resignation-letter.shtml
I’m sure she’s smart enough to know that, so I’m betting that this letter was meant to be public. But were I her, I might be regretting that choice when this article becomes my first Google result.
@you want to talk about OTHER conversations that have taken place at CU, in recent times, where race was also made into a relevant factor? I don’t have time to list them. Go read some news archives.
@As someone who read the letter, I should note that the line about being a progressive student of color was only mentioned once in a letter that focused more on time commitments, miscommunication, and other issues typical of any organization anywhere.
While we have our disagreements, Tiffany is a very nice person.
@I don't doubt that she’s a nice person. I still don’t understand what any of the issues I mentioned have to do with this. Even if they’re mentioned once. Why mention them at all?
@Absolutely Absurd It is an outrage that somebody leaked her letter to some school magazine – that was a private letter sent to members of the Senate explaining her resignation and was intended to be confidential. And the fact hat her personal life has now be posted as front page news for other people to read about is malicious fodder.
It’s embarrassing to watch this happen to somebody.
@Monica! that was so ASAP. And you are so insensitive. Do some homework. Its finals.
@excuse me effing homework.
@sssssssssssssssss sounds like this girls got too much on her plate anyway
@ummmmm well i mean if she didnt go to meetings so be it.