The Brown College Democrats have turned down an offer by Ward 1 City Councilman David Segal, a member of the Green Party, to speak at their general body meeting, citing the group's constitution.
"Because he's not a Democrat, membership in general was worried about him coming to speak," said Michaela Labriole '07, president of the Brown Democrats. "We weren't like, 'You aren't allowed to come speak.' "
The Dems had approached Segal about having him speak at a general body meeting, but later withdrew the request and instead opted to ask Segal to speak at smaller committee meetings.
"We thought it would be more appropriate for him to speak at our local politics meeting because it has to do more with what we're actually doing with him. That audience would be more responsive to him," Labriole said.
Segal said he views the decision as evidence of bias among the Dems. "It seems pretty unreasonable to not let a standing member of the City Council to speak because of petty partisan politics," he said, referring to the race for his council seat between Segal and Ethan Ris '05, a Democrat and former president of the Dems.
The decision was "not indicative of the will of the bulk of the membership," Segal added.
Labriole denied that was the case. "We're not supporting anyone," she said of the race. "We're just trying to follow our constitution."
According to Labriole, the Dems' constitution is "pretty clear" on which speakers are allowed to speak at general body meetings. "If there's a Democratic candidate in the race and that Democratic candidate (agrees with) the tenets of the Democratic party, that person should be allowed to come speak," whereas "this is not really the appropriate forum" for Republican or independent views, she said.
Adam Axler '08, speakers and events chair for the Dems, e-mailed Segal to inform him of the group's decision. "If there is a Democrat in a race, we must support our party, else we would not be the Brown Democrats, we would be the Brown Progressives," he wrote in the e-mail.
But later, Labriole took back some of the e-mail's statements, including the prohibition on Segal ever speaking at a general body meeting. "That's not really what we meant by it," she said. "The constitution has some issues with this, but we're a student organization - our constitution is to help us, but they're not steadfast rules."
Segal "misunderstood what we were saying," Labriole added. "He'll probably speak at a general body meeting sometime this semester."
"Unprincipled nonsense is pretty unbecoming of the Democrats," Segal said in response. The disagreement "further fracture(s) the activist community on campus" and "damage(s) the Brown Democrats' relationship with the city at large," he added. "I don't understand why they would do this."
Segal responded to Axler's e-mail by asking Robert Walsh '83, co-founder of the Dems and chair of Working Rhode Island, to speak at the general body meeting on his behalf. "There's Democrats that understand that there's more at stake here than party labels," Segal said.
Labriole expressed concern that the apparent snub could inhibit future cooperation between Segal and the Dems. "We really want a working relationship with him," she said.
"We've worked with David Segal in the past," she added. "We want what's best for us and what's best for him."
