SILVERSTEIN: Greetings Zion, thank you for agreeing to do this interview.
ZION: Of course, I’m happy to.
SILVERSTEIN: To begin, why were you disqualified from the SA Presidential Race?
ZION: The system is set up to limit what individuals are allowed to say, keeping them silent. However there have been many rumors that I have seen online including the correct reason. However the process was bias and several of the members, which is public information, clearly had a bias, some even were involved in removing other SA members from committees simply for disagreeing with them.
SILVERSTEIN: Rumors have circulated that you were disqualified for posting the video of Uche, who’s the SA VP, and others threatening you from this past fall. Is that the reason you were disqualified? And if so, why are they punishing the victim instead of the individuals who threatened you?
ZION: I will reframing from using names of the students involved out of courtesy, however I did post a video of the aftermath of an SA meeting while still on a Cornell zoom call as students were threatening me, and other slides showing people claiming that they would beat me on public posts along with other students starting a slander campaign calling me ‘alt right adjacent’ along with many other offensive things. I also mentioned the anti Semitism in the student assembly as they extended a meeting on a Jewish holiday and continued to remove predominantly Jewish students or those that campaigned on protecting Jewish values and how these removals were done illegally and destroyed democracy. How did the Student Assembly respond to these criticisms? They simply decided to have there Elections Committee a group that is ultimately picked by the SA and had several members on the SA on it remove me from the race.
SILVERSTEIN: What was the specific violation they cited upon your disqualification? That you posted the aforementioned video before official campaigning was allowed to begin?
ZION: I am not allowed to disclose any confidential information regarding the challenges but I can say that I was not disqualified for early campaigning and actually started campaigning somewhat late as part of my political strategy.
SILVERSTEIN: But the disqualification was the result of you posting the video?
ZION: The student assembly wasn’t okay with me posting the truth about the assembly and their actions, highlighting the toxicity of SA. There was a group that encouraged people to report it. It’s quite literally victim shaming trying to push the blame on me just for speaking up about harassment and threats I received, and I don’t say that lightly
ZION: The university refused to help ensure future students didn’t receive this type of treatment by not acting. However I was then targeted for speaking up and so far the administration hasn’t been willing to stand up against this hate but I am hopeful that they will reconsider and do the right thing and step in, because hate, especially when this severe, needs to be stoped.
SILVERSTEIN: I want to pin this down, so it’s clear to readers, and I understand there’s pressure on you not to reveal these details, was your disqualification a result of you posting this video?
ZION: If I hadn’t spoken out by posting the video, I wouldn’t have been removed from the race, that is indeed factual.
SILVERSTEIN: I understand. Prior to the start of this interview, you mentioned that there was a document the university made you sign demanding that you not reveal the details of your disqualification. Can you provide us with the details of that?
ZION: In order to run you sign that you will follow the rules and not following them will result in disqualification and part of the rules is disqualification process is confidential. That said now that I have been removed it’s less a concern but I am trying to honor the rules as it’s important to me as a person.
SILVERSTEIN: Why do you think they want to silence you?
ZION: I believe it’s two fold, one they don’t want drama during the election and secondly to protect themselves for actions that are unjustified… this however is allowing others to commit defamation as I have seen a range of accusations as to why I have been removed and the university is indirectly allowing this by holding back information regarding the disqualification. I believe the people have the right to know why their candidate was removed and this is voter suppression and then silencing of those that were suppressed and it’s incredibly sad that the university that prides itself as being supportive of its students doing this.
SILVERSTEIN: Do you know what your vote total was? Because we don’t know, as the voters. The published results seem to lack transparency, as they omit your votes completely.
ZION: They never released the total count but 454 ballots weren’t counted and it’s been said that’s because they voted for me and didn’t rank anyone else which is a very large number. That’s about 13% of voters so when people speak about good turnout it’s not necessarily they liked the SA but are so feed up with the organization they came out to vote for me and only me the only executive candidate that was a public critic of the assembly.
I know that if the results were public it would show that I should have a seat on the Student Assembly and possibly president. They would never want to show that they removed the candidate the student body wanted so it’s protocol to not release the results.
SILVERSTEIN: It’s almost as if you never ran.
ZION:That’s what they want it to seem like but the truth has been shared and both the students and administration should recognize this and that the SA doesn’t represent the students. In fact I saw a petition to dissolve the SA because it doesn’t represent the students something given the issues with the SA I support, even though I prefer a fair democracy that allows the students to actually pick their representation.
SILVERSTEIN: So based on the information available now, which is zero because the university won’t disclose it, you could have won the election had you not been disqualified? We’re not at all asserting that that’s what would have happened, we’re just pointing out the fact that no one knows. Because the university disqualified you after the votes were cast, but did not reveal how many votes in total you received?
ZION: I believe given the high voter turnout that there’s a sizable chance I was indeed the winner. I am not sure how many votes I received in total but I know there was a large group that only voted for me and I don’t believe the majority of my voters did that so I believe I got enough to be a serious contender, I believe others thought the same otherwise there wouldn’t be such a strong movement to disqualify me.
SILVERSTEIN: Is there anything else you’d like to say to the Cornell student body at this time?
ZION: I believe the University should hold there student assembly accountable to their voters and release both the allegation that ended with my removal to counter the slander they are currently allowing and release the results of I wasn’t disqualified along with look at the actual disqualification because even though they might have checked the process they never made a statement about the elections committee being unbiased or the allegations actually holding weight and the university owes the student body that information.
SILVERSTEIN: Thank you Zion.
ZION: Thank you.
