Moving on.
The concept of leaving the present and working towards the future is in the front of Student Association President Hassan Farah's mind following an incident over the summer where he was arrested for allegedly assaulting Akash Chakravarty, an orientation aide, in the Core Road tunnel at the Ellicott Complex.
On Wednesday, the Amherst Town Court reduced Farah's assault charge to a disorderly conduct charge, to which Farah pleaded guilty. The charge is a violation,
equivalent to that of a parking violation.
'After a thorough review by the district attorney and my attorneys and the judge, it has come to a consensus that no crime was committed,' Farah said. 'The assault charges were dismissed.'
Before the court's final ruling on the case, Farah said there were three additional days where he was required to attend – but Chakravarty didn't.
'The student would not come to court. He had four opportunities,' Farah said. 'For whatever reason, he decided not to cooperate with the court system. He might have felt like his side had no case. He probably felt that something in his story wasn't accurate or truthful.'
Chakravarty said that wasn't the case. He said the district attorney told him that he did not have to show up as long as he knew what was going on.
'Whatever happened, happened with my knowledge and I wasn't required to show up,' Chakravarty said.
A slice of the law
In the Sept. 2 issue of The Spectrum, Chakravarty stated that serious tension built between himself and Farah during a freshman orientation session at the Student Union. Chakravarty was working at a table where pizza was being served to freshmen, and Farah came up and took pizza, something Chakravarty said he wasn't allowed to do.
Farah agreed that the situation stemmed from a fight over four slices of pizza, but said that the incident just caused minor friction and nothing more.
'I wanted to give [four volunteers] pizza with the understanding that pizza was for freshmen,' Farah said. 'At the table, not one person, but all the [orientation aides] screamed that the pizza was for freshman only. Their supervisor from [Campus Dining and Shops] agreed with me and I distributed the pizza. To me the pizza incident was nothing major. I wasn't rude and I do not look at it as something personal. It was a minor disagreement.'
Days later, Farah and Chakravarty met again – this time, in the Richmond Quadrangle, where the tension finally erupted both verbally and physically.
According to Farah, as he was talking to two students, Chakravarty and another male came forward and began heckling him and one of the two females present. The conversation was what led to Farah punching Chakravarty in the face.
'The first gentleman came into my face…screaming and yelling and using curse words and vulgar terms,' Farah said. 'As he passed by, I went to respond, but one of the female students jumped in and asked was going on. The second gentlemen looked at her and said, 'the f-----g n----r deserved it.'
Racial margins
But Chakravarty said that didn't happen, and the police report seems to support that statement.
'There was no racial slur involved,' Chakravarty said in a previous interview with The Spectrum. 'I have a witness who can attest to the fact. Also, the police report doesn't even mention anything. There's a statement [by Farah] where it doesn't state any racial slur.'
On July 21, Farah sent an e-mail to some SA members to explain the situation, but the e-mail did not include claims that Chakravarty referred to Farah as the N-word.
'We asked him to resign and all of a sudden it became a racial issue,' said Greg Robbins, engineering council coordinator and acting senate chair. 'He was still found guilty by [the Student-Wide Judiciary]. He still committed an illegal act as president.'
In response to the event, members of the student government created a recall petition. According to the Article IX, Section 1 of the SA constitution, signatures from 10 percent of students or the same amount of people who voted in the previous election are necessary to pursue a recall through the SWJ.
At this point, John Martin, UB council representative and former SA treasurer, said that they need between 200 and 300 more signatures.
'The student body is very receptive of it,' said SA Vice President Ernesto Alvarado. 'We have all the information and evidence the student body needs to make a rational decision.'
Serious accusations
After the incident, some SA officials alleged that Farah was further abusing his power by trying to give himself a raise.
'I've taken pay cuts as we promised – a $3,000 pay cut,' Farah said. '[Per] the constitution, I cannot increase the stipend. I can only decrease it.'
They further alleged that he tried to move the date of Fall Fest at the expense of students.
'Moving it is an executive decision and we have that right,' Farah said. 'Moving it from one day to another day is a decision that we can do. If we think more students will attend, we will change that date.'
However, while Robbins believes these allegations are true, they did not play a part in the recall petition, he said.
Robbins said that the situation is clearly explained on the petition itself for students to read, and that those carrying the petition also have a copy of Farah's police report, previous articles about the situation printed in The Spectrum and a copy of the July 21 e-mail sent by Farah to members of SA.
'It doesn't factor into this petition [but] its kind of the icing on the cake,' Robbins said. 'It just goes to show his character on top of this. You need to be held accountable… especially when he ran on [a platform of] accountability.'
Farah believes they created false allegations to garner support for the petition.
'Their intentions are to defame my character through spreading rumors. They make me out to be a bad guy,' Farah said. 'The average student will not comprehend everything, so they'll react by thinking that I am unprofessional.'
Digesting the facts
Farah hopes that students will think twice before signing the petition.
'I think it's clear. There are no criminal charges. The allegations have been dismissed. The university must respect the DA and [the courts],' Farah said. 'As far as them submitting the recall petition, they have every right to do that and I'm assuming they will continue to do that. For them, it's not to look at the facts, but they will not change their minds because they have political interests and political gains they are working for.'
Reducing charges like this to a violation is common in town courts, according to Martin.
'Its pretty irrelevant to everything else going on,' Martin said. 'Pleading to a lesser charge is not equivalent to being exonerated of everything you did. If one were to say that, that's not being forthright with students.'
Alvarado said his main concern right now is to hold SA leadership accountable for its actions. While there are a lot of positive aspects of the job, SA officials have a duty to work in the best interest of the student body, he said.
'At the end of the day there's still responsibility with the job we have,' he said. 'There's a hard part to all jobs and for me this is the hard part.'
A show of support
Despite the wide spread opposition to Farah, some have come out in support of the SA president.
Okoa Kinsey, a junior environmental design major, believes the court was right to reduce the charges.
'The assault charges would have had far reaching effects beyond school.
It was reasonable for the charges to be reduced if not dropped all together,' Kinsey said.
Kinsey believes that people who have worked with Farah since his freshman year know his character.
'They know he is a man of integrity,' Kinsey said. 'He is a person who is fighting for the students, getting results and on account of that deserves to complete his term as president'
Farah has since apologized for his actions on his Facebook page and in a letter to the editor in the Sept. 11 issue of The Spectrum.
'He's taken responsibility,' said Jorge Ortiz, a junior political science major. 'A lot of people say they know how they'd respond. Nobody can actually say until they experience it.'
Many within SA did not support Farah before the incident occurred, according to Kinsey.
'A lot of this impeachment is just a pretext for those who were already against him to channel their frustration,' he said. 'Its important for people to try to acquaint themselves with the facts of the case. If you have a person in office trying to get work done, its important to allow them to continue to do good work.'
But according to Robbins, the petition was not politically motivated.
'At the end of the day none of the other people [involved] swung their fist to hit someone,' he said.
Moving forward
Farah thinks many of the details of the case have been blown out of proportion and students should look at what he has accomplished.
'Students need to really, really judge me on my duties and my work in office. Every promise I've made has been accomplished or a plan has been set for it. Every student needs to look at my platform and ask questions,' Farah said. 'We've achieved so much already. Imagine what we can do in nine months. I want to leave my legacy.'
Despite differences of opinion in the office, SA is still running smoothly, Alvarado said. He, Farah and SA Treasurer Jordan Fried have been able to work together to the benefit students.
'For the most part we try to keep it professional and keep it out of the office,' he said. 'We're there to complete the job we were elected for.'
Robbins agreed that there is tension within SA, even if work is being done.
'They've been pushing through this to make sure they do their jobs,' he said. 'The actual work ethic hasn't fallen off. They've been leaving it out of the office.'
While many are still debating the details of the case, Chakravarty wants to move beyond the incident, and said this was his reason for not showing up at court.
'I've told everyone what happened. I shouldn't be defending myself,' he said. 'I have grown really tired of telling people what really happened.'
Chakravarty said those closest to him know what happened, and now he wants to move on from this.
'I really just want to get my degree,' Chakravarty said. 'I want to get out of here.'
E-mail: spectrum-eic@buffalo.edu
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
