On May 25th, 1787, after an eleven day wait to reach quorum, the most important and best-known men in our country’s history sat down and began the long, tedious process of putting pen to paper and drafting what would become a constitution for a fledgling nation that had just defeated the greatest military force in the world. What followed were ...

Dear Editor, As I walked home from summer classes and received the email containing this proposed policy; I admittedly was awestruck. Respectfully sir, the frivolousness behind the enaction of such a policy is something I would akin to Washington, D.C., or more recently Atlanta, GA. There are several issues with the textual language of the policy of which I discuss ...

Written by Jordan Barela, Editor-in-Chief    “The Spectator is the independent student newspaper of Valdosta State University.” This is the one thing that staff members and editors have been saying whenever someone asks about the paper, calling for an interview, or just simply describing the paper. There is one keyword in that phrase that is becoming dated: newspaper. The Spectator ...

Friends and colleagues- This semester has been tumultuous.  To say there have been ups and downs would be a momentous understatement. Yes- we’re not out of the woods yet. But credit should be given where credit is due.  And today, that credit is deserved by our president William J. McKinney. Our institution has been lambasted in the media and derided ...

(I write this several days before the University of Oklahoma banned SAE for racist behavior.) Readers will know that VSU has been criticized on many fronts over the past several months: draconian budget cuts; alarming faculty reductions; the Mark George debacle. Indeed, the faculty senate contemplated a no confidence motion against members of the administration recently. The administration countered that ...

The Sociology Club will be continuing the “Diversity NOT Dress Code” petition campaign next week in the Student Union.  This campaign is addressing discriminatory dress code signs displayed in three Remerton bars. Many of the items listed on the signs are clothing articles typically associated with black male stereotypes. The Sociology Club observed several nights of activity in each bar ...

On June 23, Dr. Mark George, adjunct professor for the Women’s and Gender Studies program (WGST), used his VSU email to send a letter to the governor and General Assembly asking them to “no longer endorse, promote, and support Confederate holidays, events, and historic sites.” Dr. George’s social justice action was conducted on behalf of the Mary Turner Project (MTP) ...

I write in support of your article “Domestic abuse project hung out to dry”. I was in the Faculty Senate Meeting when this issue was raised by Dr. Tracy Meyers, Director , WGST. Dr. Meyers told the Senate what she had been told relative to the clothesline project and that it could be deemed political activity that is prohibited by ...

By: Roger Farinha I see how intellectual ideas not only shape our modern global history, but how America has inherited the most advanced and liberal ideas emerging from the history of modern philosophical thought, and how our nation is now on the verge of putting one final crown of reason on the highest liberal ideals of humankind ‒ a task ...

As the Foundation’s Annual Giving Fund Drive gets underway this year, I pause and reflect on the events of the last year. I have been contributing annually to the fund since my arrival at Valdosta State in 1990. I have happily given not only to my own department, but to various units throughout the university as many of these need ...