Column:

Nick Trusty, I've got my aim on you

By Dan Friesen

Published April 3, 2007

As I'm sure those of you not in the agricultural field are fully aware, I'm not big on journalism. I find most of the journalism I read boring and biased, and most of the journalists I meet are smug and snooty.

But I'm not one to refuse to give credit where credit is due. Journalism does serve an important function as the public's private eye, bringing to light injustices shrouded from public sight, demanding public answers to questions certain swine would rather ignore or lie about in private. It is in such a capacity that I come to you today.

If there is one thing I loathe more than journalism, it has to be student government. It seems that the people who are most attracted to being elected or appointed to positions in student leadership are exactly the people who least need the validation. These people think that being elected or appointed to a leadership position means that there is a mandate and that the student body is behind them, never acknowledging the truth that they are part of a self-aggrandizing system that, at best, annoys everyone who's not involved.

And then there are the times when the officials, who only got elected because no one even cared to run against them, betray the public trust. They put on horribly disappointing free concerts, they fail to even plan future disappointing free concerts, they misappropriate campus funds and they make up bullshit excuses for their actions.

I'm sure you all have read the news about six Department of Student Activities members receiving an all-expenses paid (by student fees) trip to Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest music festival, so I will not belabor the details. Put aside for the moment that the trip cost thousands of dollars and that the excuses for the theft have been laughable and insulting. These are not the important pieces of the puzzle. There is a piece that everyone seems to be missing, a piece that it is only too appropriate that I bring to light.

The head of DSA, a young man named Nick Trusty, is an old friend of mine. You might know him as the man who dropped the ball with the Big Free Music Festival concert last year and appears to be saying "to hell with even having a Big Free this year." I know him as the man who thought my Rosa Parks joke was racist and sought to get me fired for it. I also know him as a hypocrite who held a major position in the officialdom as the then-director of the Department of Student Communications that axed funding for Verge'N magazine — a voice for diversity after the editors of said publication made it clear they would not bend over for MSA's censorship. I further know him as the man who, as DSC director, filed for 53 extra hours of work, thereby collecting $358.65 more than what was allotted for his salary. The man's got a major in student fee pilfering with a minor in free-speech squashing.

I know, I know. I'm just crazy. The overpayment was an accident (a claim that Trusty made damn sure people heard repeatedly.) The editors of Verge'N were unprofessional. The trip to SxSW was really important to keep — to quote College Music Committee (an organization within DSA) Chairwoman Rachel Parrish — "DSA on the cutting edge of music."

Corruption is afoot, children. I see major abuses of power and an overall pattern of irresponsible behavior, and it's all emanating from the desk of Nick Trusty.

Children, for too long cretins like Trusty have hidden behind the security of having nothing but friends in student government. They know that their friends aren't going to give them the thorough investigation required to get to the truth, and that the campus press is impotent.

That's where I come in. I'm going to expose you for the fink you are, Assistant Manager Tweed. Friesen's on the case, Mr. Trusty. Beware the Ides of April.