After yesterday’s resignation by Alex Gallagher from ASM’s student council, I think any chance for ASM to effectively implement the necessary reforms including those described in their 5 point reform plan has been ended.
If you look at the quotes from Gallagher in the BH
“We need to push for ASM to have a legitimate role,” Gallagher said. “We can’t sit here and come to meetings every other week and think that we are really outreaching to the campus. As vice chair, I really want to spearhead our movement to increase our outreach capacity.”
and even better from the DC
“ASM is not really moving in the direction that I will continue to support,” Gallagher said. “I feel like reform is going to be a tough issue for this body to handle––far more than I have the patience for.”
it appears as though he has decided to throw in the towel on ASM reform. He ran for Student Council on a platform of reforming ASM and was arguably the most prominent proponent of ASM reform. In light of the recent events, it seems to me that he had an all or nothing attitude when it came to ASM reform. Either reform was going to happen or he would not be a part of ASM, and its pretty clear which of the two ended up happening. I believe that his resignation was his way of signaling that he doesn’t believe any kind of meaningful ASM reform was actually going to happen.
Gallagher, and to a slightly lesser extend Jeff Wright, were clearly the ones who were pushing the hardest for ASM reform. Gallagher was even the CB anointed leader of the reform movement. Jeff Wright in his interview on Smathers’ radio show this morning called him a “key member of ASM leadership.” Gallagher has been most active commenting about the reform plans on the CB. Gallagher had the vast majority of the quotes from ASM members in this BH piece of the 5-point reform plan. Jeff Wright was the only other member quoted and he only had one. If you look through the recent ASM articles on ASM reform it seems as though Gallagher and Wright are always quoted. They were the first two quoted in the DC article on ASM reform. They have the most name recognition of the any of the members of the ASM reform push. Even if ASM reformed was going to happen despite the results of last night’s meeting, Gallagher’s resignation has cut off one of the two heads of the ASM reform dragon. Losing one of the biggest public promoters of ASM reform has seemingly stopped the growing momentum behind ASM reform.
Gallagher’s resignation has dashed my hopes for any kind of meaningful ASM reform and if you ask me, I would say the winds blowing into the sails of the ship of revolution have grown remarkably stronger over the past couple of hours.
