Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

Student President Jibran Muhammad’s behavior at Monday’s Presidential Roundtable was totally unacceptable. While repeatedly emphasizing that he could sit back, do nothing and get paid, Muhammad took the opportunity to be aggressively contemptuous of pretty much everything and everyone he could think of. After tossing a few of VCU’s political footballs (financial aid is terrible! Why don’t we have a football team, a marching band, or an alma mater?) he turned his sights on the assembly of students seated before him.

These are good folks, leaders of student organizations, who take time out of their lives each week to contribute to VCU’s community. Rather than acknowledging the contributions student organizations have made over the last 40 years, he took a different stance. Loudly, and for half an hour, he accused the assembly of not being involved enough. That they didn’t vote, didn’t care and needed to change. He said he didn’t know what students wanted and that it was our duty to tell him.

Despite a tepid apology, I left the meeting feeling tremendously insulted. I’ve attended Roundtables every semester for two years, and this was the first I had ever seen or heard of Muhammad. He has no right to dodge this meeting for years, then show up and act like student organizations are supposed to be fixing the problems he was ostensibly elected to address.

What’s more, even given this golden opportunity, he did not inform the public as to the details of his new constitution. In fact, when it was brought up, he became defensive and quiet. Curious and more curious .

Sincerely,
Tom Liles