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Dear Jesse Longoria,

I want to share an anecdote with you. In January 1969, a group of African-American students occupied Ford Hall at Brandeis University to make demands for better minority representation on campus. My father, a senior, was student body president at the time and was called into the president's office to represent his peers. Morris Abram, Brandeis' president, was considering calling in the police (as was the case at Duke when African-American students occupied the Allen Building). My father adamantly opposed the use of force and managed to talk Abram out of taking any rash actions. Eleven days and no tear gas later, the students peacefully left Ford Hall.

I want to make it very clear that it is not only unfair but wholly inappropriate to compare the incident at Ford Hall and by extension the takeover of the Allen Building to any of the current trial and tribulations you currently face as student body president. Perhaps in such a dire situation, you would actually rise to the occasion and serve as an effective representative of the student body. Then again, there is nothing in your current record to indicate that you would be capable of asserting yourself in the face of staunch administrative opposition, and I worry that the tailgates, Belmont raids and black student concerns are only the beginning.

Jesse, I don't know if you have been talking to your peers outside of Duke Student Government or your own fraternity, but I want to let you know that there is widespread discontent over your performance-or lack thereof-in office. With the exception of a few jointly penned letters to the editor and a series of innocuous quotes, you have utterly failed to establish yourself in the eyes of the students. Forget the fact that you did not organize and speak at any form of interfaith service or moment of silence for Hurricane Katrina, but you have also failed publicly to come to the defense of the students affected by the numerous police raids off-campus.

I do not know why I am surprised by your lack of courage and panache considering you largely ran a feel-good campaign for president that lacked any true substance. Emily Aviki was at least willing to bend the campaign rules while Russ Ferguson muscled Aviki out of the run-off. I voted for you twice but am beginning to question my decision.

I am sure you are looking forward to applying for Young Trustee, but the reality is that you have so far failed to demonstrate the effective leadership of students like Brandon Goodwin or Sara Oliver and should instead concern yourself with actually representing the students as opposed to appeasing the administrators. Following the massive raid at the Belmont, for example, Larry Moneta openly declared his intent to pursue further judicial action against the students arrested-as if the legal ramifications of the incident were not sufficient-and yet you remained silent on the matter.

I have three suggestions:

1. Submit a guest column to The Chronicle that outlines the concrete steps you have taken over the past month to address the dwindling social life off campus and the increased harassment of students by Durham and campus police officers.

2. Hold a student-only town hall meeting with the presidents of the Interfraternity Council, Pan-Hellenic Association, Black Student Association, Inter-Greek Council and National Pan-Hellenic Council to address student social concerns and the state of race relations on campus. I sincerely hope you read Racine Harris's insightful letter to the editor last week in which she raised legitimate concerns regarding the heightened campus focus on police harassment of white students when similar incidents between the police and black students occur on a far more regular basis.

3. Throw away, or better yet, burn your putrid green tailgate monitor T-shirt. I recognize that you are only trying to assist the student body by sacrificing your own tailgate for the enjoyment of the masses. But the reality is that you are acting as a cover for and are thus complicit in the administration's intention to ruin the tailgate experience. Do not think for a second that your generous sacrifice of countless hours of drinking will somehow save the already curtailed tailgates from the Dean-Sue/Larry-Moneta wrecking ball that is rumored to be on its way following homecoming weekend.