In the wake of New York State’s unfortunate (but also unsurprising) rejection of marriage equality, some Stony Brook students have called for the renaming of Kenneth P. LaValle stadium in reaction to his part as a crusader for the status quo (read bigotry). Some students, though, have questioned this tactic using a number of different arguments which include, but aren’t limited to, the recent SUNY budget cuts as well as framing the move as being based in narrow-minded, issue-based politics.

Let’s start with the budget cuts. The argument goes that it would cost money to change all of the signs and literature if we were to change the name of the stadium. Money that we don’t have. Why don’t we have this money, though? Is it because the governing body of New York State has been running up a deficit that the taxpayers didn’t ask for? Is it because the world’s economy nearly collapsed as a result of predatory lenders and large, powerful industries protecting their own malfeasance? Is it because, despite the clear culpability of Wall Street, politicians in New York have refused to heed the advice of Nobel Prize winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman or life-long activist and consumer advocate Ralph Nader regarding a speculation tax which would not only reduce risk but generate income for New York State? Perhaps it’s because of the tight grip that insurance companies have on our politicians in protecting their industry, preventing American citizens from receiving a publicly funded, non-profit and exponentially cheaper health care system such as single payer (even if only on the state level). New York State does spend more on health care than on education. Or is it all of the above?

The fact of the matter is that the budget cuts were a corporate bailout. Though no funds flooded into Wall Street or the pockets of private insurance companies, they were granted a get-out-of-jail-free card by being spared the hatchet. The taxpayers (specifically students, teachers and low-income employees within the SUNY system) got the shaft. And yet who do these students rallying against the name-change want to shoulder the blame? The students. The argument goes that we need to stretch our dollar as much as possible. We need to be frugal. Why, though? We’re not the state’s accountants nor are we the policymakers. We’re the taxpaying students who entrusted the state government to put our contribution to good use. What if you worked a 40 hour week and your boss told you on pay day that you were only getting paid for 20 hours because he was irresponsible with company money? Would you walk away with your tail between your legs and decide that you need to be more fiscally responsible in light of this? Obviously you wouldn’t go out and buy a Ferrari, but campus-based activism and buying a Ferrari are two different animals. The fact is that the onus is not on us to stretch our buck. The onus is on us to demand what we’ve contributed. Period.

As far as this being a reactionary move by single-issue activists, that’s just silly. First of all, having known many of these supposedly narrow-minded activists personally for the last three years, they’re hardly single-issue. This is also hardly reactionary. If you vote for a candidate and they let you down, the story goes that you don’t vote for them again and let them know why. If you had contributed money to them, you don’t do it again and you let them know why. For the individual voter, though, these are hardly disincentives for a politician to continue disappointing the public. Chances are most marriage equality activists didn’t vote for Kenneth LaValle in the first place (he’s done more than just shoot down gay marriage, by the way). This begs the question: what can the general public who either don’t live in LaValle’s district or didn’t vote for him in the first place do to make him feel the repercussions of his actions? It’s unusual that we accept that politicians who we can’t vote for are legitimately able to determine how our lives are organized through policies which affect us all but when a group of students wants to exercise their leverage over that same politician it’s unfair targeting and partisan politics.

Changing the name of the stadium is more than just symbolic. It will more than likely be reported in the media, putting LaValle front and center in the putsch against marriage equality. The stadium, too, legitimizes his position as a contributor to our community which he clearly is not. “Here’s a bunch of money. Play some football, just don’t be a homosexual.” By changing the name we remove the constant branding of this politician on our campus. Even if it turned out to be merely symbolic, though, is it not the students who should determine the environment in which they learn and live?

So, Peep The Strategy:

Let’s stop martyring ourselves about these budget cuts and use all that emotion to rally not only against further cuts, but for reimbursement of those funds. There are plenty of other budget solutions that New York State can enact which would not only generate much more income but also curb risk, exponentially improve health care and not come at the cost of the taxpayers. Public education budget cuts don’t just mean less books and less funding for clubs. It means department cuts, lay offs and lower quality education for the next generation. It salvages the state government by cutting the deficit but does so by impacting general population. With unemployment at record highs nation-wide, lay offs will result in more than just a shift in the workplace. It will result in higher unemployment, further depressing the economy. Generally speaking, it affects the lower-income brackets of New York State, too. The lowest-income employees are the most “disposable” and therefore the first to go. Talk about class warfare.

Let’s get this stadium name changed and start taking back the power that’s been concentrated in the hands of the few (even if this is only a baby step). Once we do that, let’s keep the momentum high. Let’s give the press a reason to focus on Stony Brook students the way our comrades in California recently did. First the stadium, next the budget and then we’ll see where we go from there. Either way, let’s put the pressure on. If you’re not willing to join us, though, then get out of our way.