Ohio U “blood bucket” student senate president sparks Recall Petition (#RecallSSE)

Ohio U “blood bucket” student senate president sparks Recall Petition (#RecallSSE)

We preciously covered the “blood bucket challenge” carried out by Ohio University student senate president Megan Marzec, in which she hijacked the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in order to bash Israel.

(Ohio U. Student Senate President Megan Marzec anti-Israel “Blood Bucket Challenge”)

Marzec’s politicization of a charity fundraiser meant to raise research funds for an incurable disease sparked widespread outrage, and protests on campus.

One of those protests was at a student senate meeting where Marzec had protesters arrested by campus police when the protesters insisted on being able to present their objections outside the allotted speaking time.  The protesters continue to face criminal charges for “disrupting a public meeting.”

The national Hillel movement has sought an apology from the University for using campus police to enforce Marzec’s political agenda.

(Megan Marzec ordering arrest of Pro Israel student Rebecca Sebo, Ohio University)(credit: Kaitlin Owens video)

The Student Seanate Tresurer resigned in protest, and received a public letter of praise from Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel for taking that action:

As Treasurer of the State of Ohio, I was proud to read about the Treasurer of Ohio University’s Student Senate, Carter Phillips, who recently resigned in articulate fashion and with incredible strength.

As Phillips stated in his resignation speech in response to the anti-Israel and anti-student “circus” created by the student senate leadership, “it breaks my heart to see an organization that has the ability to help every student on this campus destroy itself.”

Mr. Phillips was referring to the September 10th meeting in which the student senate leaders restricted the free speech of their constituents and did so in violation of their own senate rules.

As a Marine Corps veteran who raised his right hand to defend that beloved freedom of speech, I write today to publicly stand with Carter and applaud him for having the guts, backbone and understanding of what it truly means to represent a constituency. I also write today to publicly stand with every student on campus who recognizes the importance of the US-Israel relationship.

Now students upset with the way Marzec has conducted herself are circulating a petition to recall the student senate election last spring, during which Marzec was elected.

The first signatures! #RecallSSE pic.twitter.com/ZGIcEbUBKe

— Anna Lippincott (@anna_lippincott) September 22, 2014

The student newspaper, The Post, reports Petition calls for election recall:

Several student groups are circulating a petition on campus demanding the recall of the most recent Student Senate election in the aftermath of Senate President Megan Marzec’s “blood bucket” challenge video.

The petition, which is using #RecallSSE on Twitter, aims to receive 3,000 student signatures before being presented at the next Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 17 and calls for an amendment to be added to the Ohio University Student Senate Constitution which would allow a recall election of the previous senate election held last spring, during which Marzec was elected.

There are 10 sets of this petition currently circulating through various petition holders, each aiming to receive 300 signatures, said Taylor Hufford, LGBTQ affairs senate.

“This is the first time that this had ever been done before,” Hufford said. “It’s kind of unprecedented territory. It’s in the constitution that they can do this if they put this together.”

Hufford was involved in drafting and organizing the petition and said that within the first 48 hours of circulation roughly 300 signatures had been collected. The first signatures were gathered Monday night.

Several campus groups are involved with this petition, including the OU College Republicans, Bobcats for Israel and the Jewish fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Hufford said….

If the petition successfully collects the necessary number of signatures, the amendment must be approved by the Board of Trustees, and the constitution will then be modified.

An additional petition, attached to the one calling for the recall election, references disapproval for Marzec’s “blood bucket” challenge video and aims to gather support for the proposed amendment, said Gabby Bacha, South Green senator.

The petition states that a signature doesn’t call for Marzec’s resignation but instead is an act to give students an opportunity to “make sure a democratic process remains democratic” through the recall election.

We love the #RecallSSE movement…students have the right to hold their government accountable.

— College Republicans (@OUCRs) September 24, 2014

The Cleveland Jewish News further reports:

Students began promoting the petition Sept. 22 on Twitter using the hashtag #RecallSSE. Rebecca Sebo, president of Bobcats for Israel, is one of the students responsible for starting the campaign.

“Some students and I have been talking about how we can better out student senate,” Sebo said. “We know that we cannot force anyone to resign and we feel that Megan [Marzec] is not going to resign. We believe that the impeachment process won’t work because the majority of senate is her campaign, which is the Restart Party.”

Sebo, along with students Max Peltz, Jonah Yulish, and Gabriel Sirkin, was arrested Sept. 10 for disturbing a lawful meeting after she and her fellow three students attempted to filibuster a student senate meeting.

We’ll keep following this case.

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