USG passes Tommie-Johnnie rivalry resolution

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The Undergraduate Student Government unanimously passed a resolution on the Tommie-Johnnie rivalry at its meeting Sunday night. The resolution is a response to the offensive T-shirts the university banned, which “do not promote a healthy sense of school pride, sportsmanship, or competition,” according to the resolution.

Vice President of Public Relations Corey Dahl submitted the resolution, stating, “the Undergraduate Student Government supports only positive expressions of competition and school spirit.”

“One place St. John’s did win was in the place of sportsmanship,” Dahl said. “It’s important we look at how we represent our school.”

Even though the Tommie-Johnnie game was Saturday, Oct. 2, Dahl said it was important for the USG to make a “public declaration as to what our council thinks.” The resolution cites The Church in the Modern World, a Catholic document passed at Vatican II, as well as the university’s mission, vision and convictions statement and the preamble of the USG constitution.

The resolution was unanimously passed.

Irish Society Club approved

The USG approved a new Irish Society Club. Only two other universities have Irish society clubs, making this the third in the nation, according to Shane Curran, a representative from the Irish Society Club.

Curran said no clubs are available on campus for Irish students, even though the university has a strong Irish tradition.

The club hopes to promote awareness about Irish culture, host events and hold regular meetings. The Irish Society Club would also like to reach out to the greater Twin Cities area.

Theresa Malloy can be reached at mall5754@stthomas.edu.

6 Replies to “USG passes Tommie-Johnnie rivalry resolution”

  1. “One place St. John’s did win was in the place of sportsmanship,” Dahl said.
    I’m not sure what this was necessarily directed toward. There were numerous shirts sported by our neighbors to the north “degrading humanity” as it has been labeled in previous stories / comments. Along with the T-Shirts, there were several times thoughout the game that the SJU students erupted in a rather raucous chant of “Eff St. Thomas.” The fact that USG took time out of their meeting to pass a resolution such as this is laughable in my opinion.

  2. Travis,
    I was more or less speaking to the shirts SJU/CSB students created this year.  I spoke with my friend, who is an SJU student, and he told be about the shirts that students made this year.  There was only one shirt that could be deemed offensive, and it was nowhere near as controversial as some of the UST shirts.  It is USG’s job to represent our school on and off-campus, and this resolution was necessary to promote and reinforce the kind of character our university displays.

  3. Yes, UST had some typically offensive t-shirts, but Travis is right about the Johnnies. I was standing near the border between the Johnnie student section and the UST crowd, the “F St. Thomas” chant came up amongst the Johnnies at least two or three different times. They also chanted “Go to Hell” at one point during the game. I couldn’t hear the Tommie chants (if there were any) from where I was watching the game, but everyone in the stadium could hear the SJU student section. Let’s not forget the large “UST SUCKS” banner that was being passed around the end zone seats. Everyone could certainly have acted more like adults, but I’ll take some suggestive t-shirts over chanted obscenities. Kudos to USG for addressing this, but the Johnnies need to look in the mirror as well.

  4. It should also be pointed out that the Johnnies wielded *vuvulzelas*, which is illegal under several of the Geneva conventions. Otherwise, I approve of the resolution — but I’m posting because I’m wondering whether there’s any online depository of USG documents? Anywhere where I and other students can actually *read* this resolution and others like it? Or the constitutions of new clubs, minutes of the meetings, things like that? USG outputs so much verbiage, much of it very good and useful, but it gets lost on the student population because we only ever hear about it if TommieMedia reports on it and even in the best cases we only get excerpts. I think an online document repository would significantly improve USG’s effectiveness, visibility, and reputation on campus.

    Also — Lumen Gentium getting quoted in USG documents. Nice.

  5. Actually, James, the Vatican II Document on the Church in the Modern World is Gaudium et spes, but I agree that it’s cool that Vatican II documents are being cited in USG resolutions!

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