Students Demand the Resignation of Texas State Student Body President

By Camelia Juarez
Assistant News Director

SAN MARCOS, Texas–Texas State students called for the resignation of Student Body President Connor Clegg after discovering what critics call racist posts on social media. A protest and public forum were held Monday evening. The protest met at the Fighting Stallions statue on Texas State Campus, then minority student groups, such as SCOPE and PAAC, led the crowd to the LBJ Teaching Theater where the public forum was held.

Over 400 protesters filed into the LBJ Teaching theater chanting, “Connor Clegg has got to go.”

Clegg was in front of the room silently pacing. Students waited in line with two minutes each to speak. Several students voiced their opinions on Connor Clegg’s actions and the rising racial tensions on Texas State’s campus.

After three hours of students protesting to Clegg one by one, he responded at the end of the night by saying, “I- I am going to take what everybody told me and I am going to go home and pray on it tonight.”

The student who wrote the articles of impeachment gave her reasons for writing it: “Students are afraid to come here because of the constant threat of violence, consistent threat of racism and abuse of power from our representatives.”

Student Body senators also expressed their dissatisfaction with Clegg’s behavior and said, “Connor Clegg specifically told us to look at our social media and look at internally and notice whatever we put forth is how we show we represent Texas State.”

Since the protest and forum, the Graduate House of Representatives released a statement supporting the impeachment of Clegg.

At the Impeach Clegg protest, several students brought to attention and criticized past racially charged incidents on campus. Last year, an anonymous twitter account posted a picture of an African-American student’s face digitally stitched onto a picture of a man being lynched. Neither Texas State President Denise Trauth nor Clegg made no public statement.

Similarly, flyers and banners from white supremacist groups were put around campus and Clegg made no comment, but Trauth did make a statement. Details about the police investigations regarding the flyers on campus were kept away from the media.

After the University Star published Rudy Martinez’s opinion article titled “Your DNA is an Abomination” that included racially charge language towards white people, Clegg called for the resignation of Martinez and the potentially de-funding of the University Star. Martinez and workers at the University Star received death threats and neither student body leader made attempts for their safety or public statements.

Featured image by Camelia Juarez.