A week ago the Emerald reported that ASUO Sen. Mercedes White Calf, who had just been appointed and confirmed to a seat on the Programs Finance Committee, was moving on from a 2008 shoplifting conviction — which many senators who had voted for her confirmation were unaware of. The article recounted White Calf’s charges, her community service and fines, as well as her history of student leadership positions that ASUO Vice President Getachew Kassa felt made her qualified for the Senate seat.
The ASUO Executive publicly responded to the article Wednesday night, arguing that its tone contrasted sharply with a front-page feature story from the previous week about Sen. Ben Fisher, another executive appointee. ASUO President Emma Kallaway said the feature on Fisher, a white, male law student, was “written very favorably” and the article on White Calf, a Native American and African-American female, was “wholly negative.” Kallaway said the articles prove and contribute to “a serious race problem” on campus.
But the story was not about race. It was about someone who had already received significantly more press than most students who move into a position of public trust on a committee that allocates millions of student dollars.
Race did not drive the White Calf story. White Calf herself dictated the story.
White Calf’s arrest was covered in the Emerald in 2008 because she was a University student, and in The Oregonian because she was once a Portland Rose Festival princess. It was also covered by Portland and Eugene television stations KMTR, KPTV, KGW, KEZI, KATU and KVAL.
White Calf was also written about before her arrest because she was a 2007 Jefferson High School princess and was later awarded a Gates Millennium Scholarship, which pays for her education through graduate school. That accomplishment, with an accompanying photo, was reported by Willamette Week.
White Calf’s name was recognizable to reporters as soon as she appeared on the Senate agenda.
While the executive chose not to disclose any information to senators about White Calf’s criminal history, it should not have expected this newspaper to do the same. To withhold the information because of a senator’s race or gender would hardly be ethical.
Although White Calf’s criminal record was known, Kassa nominated her without letting so much as a whisper of it slip. Kassa offered Senate an unconvincing justification of this omission at Wednesday’s meeting.
“It’s not in my purview for me to know that information,” he said. “We in the ASUO don’t need to know of someone’s past.”
Following Kassa’s logic, it doesn’t much matter what one does before entering the political arena — he’s not checking backgrounds and even if he’s privy to knowledge that might interest senators or voters, he’s keeping quiet. While Kassa might not believe it is his job to inform senators and voters of Senate-hopefuls’ criminal records, it is certainly his job to answer to his colleagues and constituents when his actions come into question.
That “serious race problem” on campus that Kallaway referenced Wednesday may exist. However, the Emerald’s reporting on White Calf’s appointment is not an illustration of the problem. It is an example of hard realities, including a newspaper’s obligation to report the truth, even it means uncovering truths that we wish weren’t true.
No matter how deserving she may be, conspiring to protect White Calf from criticism is simply not a newspaper’s function, nor is it one the Emerald will perform.
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The truth is in senator’s history
Daily Emerald
November 19, 2009
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