The hidden racists of St Cloud

Dr Roy Saigo has recently retired at the President at SCSU. I cannot say enough about his time at SCSU, the University took a major step forward under his reign at SCSU.

The SC Times had an excellent editorial yesterday that highlighted some of Dr Saigo's accomplishments.

Unfortunately, the closet racists in the area have littered Story Chat with comments.

AAAL from St. Joe Comment
Posted: 6/17/2007 2:21:30 AM
Siago = endorsment of male queens

Discrimination never rests in St Cloud, 2:30 in the morning and the attacks begin.

count from countyline
Comment Posted: 6/17/2007 10:21:12 AM
I think the " homecoming queen
fiasco" was caused by a typo.
When typing --QUEEN---- on the ballots,
the person typing hit "R" ibstead of "N". ( that would explain it)

Going on three years now and some are still bitching about the Homecoming elections. For the record, Dr Saigo had nothing to do with students across the campus voting and electing a gay Hmong man Homecoming Queen.

Those still bitching about this...

1. Have way too much time on their hands.
2. Probably could not have voted for or against a candidate in that election as they were not students.
3. Give the St Cloud area a black eye for their persistent and covert racism. I say covert because no one knows who AAAL is, whereas you can pretty much figure out who in the hell Blueman is. I'm not covert at all...

Saigo defended students publicaly when the local nutjobs started calling in death threats to the Student Government offices and to the homes of some of those involved. I have not agreed with all of Dr Saigo's decisions and we have had some lengthy discussions about that. However, he is quite simply the most student oriented leader I have met and I have a great amount of respect for him. I have learned a lot from him and wish him the best of luck in his retirement. Perhaps he'll spend some time on a local lake catching a few Walleye...but I bet he heads out to Oregon to catch the big ones!

What people don't know is that people like Dan Severson and Bud Heidgerken called for Dr Saigo to resign after the 2004 Homecoming.

They told us in lobby meetings that they were going to have a hard to advocating money for SCSU in light of the 2004 Homecoming.

Seriously! Rep Severson came and testified at a few Student Government meetings...it was a zoo to say the least!

All this over Homecoming.

The SC Times got it right though. There is a lot to celebrate as Dr Saigo retires. He has left a legacy at SCSU.

A modern collegiate library, the Miller Center.

A state of the art small college multi-purpose stadium, domed in the winter for more activities.

A parking ramp going up, (disagreed adamantly about where it was going).

Future PhD programs on campus.

Greater counseling services in a central location.

I could go on and on...

Dr Saigo is a good man and both himself and his wife Barb will be missed by the community, despite what the racists post at Story Chat.