Mo Torres

Mo Torres is an ASUCD Senator. He ran, and won, with the LEAD slate in the Fall 2008 ASUCD election. He disaffiliated from LEAD in Fall 2009, accusing the organization of racism and homophobia. He went on to support the JAM slate in the Fall 2009 ASUCD election.

Vote Mo #1 for ASUCD Senate!

Candidate Statement and Activities

What's up everyone! My name is Mo Torres, and I am running for ASUCD Senate! I am a third year History and Chican@ Studies major from Sacramento, California.

In case you've never voted in an ASUCD election before (and that's most of the student body) here's a little bit of info—there are twelve seats in the ASUCD Senate, and six of them are up for election this quarter! Because ASUCD elections use choice voting, where you RANK the candidates instead of just picking one, just remember to vote MO TORRES #1 and the rest of the LEAD slate #2-6!

UCD Involvement / Experience:

• Transfer Orientation Leader, Summer 2008
• Freshman Orientation Leader, Summer 2008
• Mixed/Multi-Ethnic Community Intern at the Cross Cultural Center
• Undergraduate Volunteer, Clínica Tepati
• Planning Committee, Middle East/South Asian Leadership Retreat
• Planning Committee, Mixed Heritage Week 2008
• Undergrad Assistant, AIDS & Society
• Member, La Familia
• Member, Mixed Student Union
• Student Assistant, The History Project
• Attendee, Middle East/South Asian Leadership Retreat, 2008
• Education Abroad Program participant: Bahia, Brasil Fall 2007

Platform Issues

• TRANSFER STUDENT HOUSING

Advocate for housing to be made available to new transfer students near campus. Work on reserving section of planned West Village community for transfer students.

• ETHNIC & CULTURAL STUDIES

Continue the fight to bring a Chican@ Studies PhD to Davis

Push for allowing African American & African Studies, Asian American Studies, and Native American Studies majors to graduate with departmental honors

Expand the Middle East/South Asian Studies program, and push for more languages at UC Davis

• USE OF RACE IN UC STATISTICS

UCD does not accurately represent the student body in terms of race

Southeast Asian students are under-represented, yet they go unnoticed because of UC's use of the umbrella category "Asian"

Mixed race students are not given a choice in how to identify - the UC does it for them

Work with students throughout the UC system to fight for systemwide change

• ASUCD BLOOD DRIVE

Men who have sex with men are not allowed to donate blood under FDA regulations. Many college campuses throughout California are banning blood drives.

Work towards allowing blood drives to continue at UC Davis, but with the condition that they must be accompanied with an educational / advocacy campaign to alert students of the problems with the FDA regulation.

2008-11-11 23:47:04   Mo is going to win, and thus blood drives will be allowed to continue. I'm glad Mo is fighting against those who want to take blood drives away. (Not that anyone is trying to do that, but I guess its good to be vigilant...) —JoseBleckman

• I apologize for not making myself clear in my original statement. As much as I appreciate the sarcasm in your comment, I'm going to have to make a clarification here. I have never made the claim that anyone at UC Davis is actively fighting to ban blood drives. I will be the first to say, however, that the way blood drives are conducted in this country is discriminatory and homophobic. With that in mind, I completely understand why there would be a push to ban blood drives on a college campus. As part of a larger push for LGBT rights on the UC Davis campus, maybe somebody SHOULD work against blood drives. As of yet, this issue has gone unaddressed.

  My stance on this issue is a logical one. I understand the need for blood donation in this country. At the same time, if we wish to hold true to our Principles of Community, we must ensure that our university is open, safe, and inclusive to all students, regardless of sexual orientation. By allowing blood donation to occur at UC Davis while gay men are explicitly discriminated against in the process, we are perpetuating homophobia on our campus.

  My platform balances the need for blood donation and the responsibility of providing for a marginalized community on our campus. Very few senators have run on an explicitly pro-LGBT platform in the past. I am, quite frankly, surprised that you would choose to make light of this issue, when to many students at UC Davis, this issue is incredibly personal, and incredibly important. — MoTorres

• "Work towards allowing blood drives to continue at UC Davis" is the only thing I was referring to. I would not want voters to think that the only way to keep blood drives going would be by electing a particular senator. A lot of students enjoy taking part in blood drives, and I did not want them fearful that if they voted for other candidates blood drives would be taken away. —JoseBleckman
• Other candidates would not have provided as strong an LGBT voice as I will provide in ASUCD. Activism against blood drives, as James has pointed out (below) is a natural offspring of the greater LGBT rights movement. LGBT activism on the UC Davis campus is increasing in recent weeks, and a push to ban blood drives is likely. If ASUCD does not take a leadership role in advocating against the ban on gay men, I will tell you now that such a push would come with my full support. If my senate goals are successful, however, that will not be the case. We will be able to take an active stance against homophobia, while at the same time, supporting blood drives. Hopefully that clears things up for you. — MoTorres

2008-11-17 16:03:03   It's pretty sad when Mo comes on here to address your concerns and he answers them respectfully, yet does not receive the same respect in return. —JamesSchwab

• Any sentence that begins with "With all due respect" is not a respectful sentence. —BrentLaabs
• Come on now. really?? -JS
• Yep, I learned this at the NAGPS Annual Conference. We had a motivational speaker come and talk to us about increasing our happiness through the MYFABMOFA plan: Make Yourself Feel Awesome By Making Others Feel Awful. Note that this motivational speaker was a comedian. But yeah, one of the tactics to use here is to start a sentence with something that sounds positive, only to let them drop even more. This enhances the fun. Examples: "I appreciate your work", "Please don't take this the wrong way," or "With all due respect." —BrentLaabs
• I agree with Brent, I read the comments last night and was really glad that Mo answered the questions, I know a lot of the other candidates haven't but to their defense they may not know how to use the wiki. I think it comes off as slightly rude but the whole blood drive thing was kinda iffy to begin with because honestly, what can Mo really do other than ban blood drives? It's a great way to appeal to students however. - GregWebb
• Just wait and see, Greg. A lot will be done. I am aware of your skepticism, and if you would like to discuss this issue personally with me, I invite you to meet with me at any time. I will be in the Cross Cultural Center every day this week. If you would prefer not to meet with me in person, you can e-mail me at motorres at ucdavis. The wiki is not a particularly good way to reach me. I visited this page by chance last night, and am happy to reply to people on a public forum, but e-mail is a much better way by which to contact me. — MoTorres
• I appreciate the offer and for someone who claims to not be reachable on the wiki, you respond very quickly. I'll probably take you up on the offer later in your term when things are less hectic (finals). - Greg Webb

2008-11-17 21:18:35   Maybe this will give you an idea —JamesSchwab

2008-11-18 14:06:12   Mo - its not worth responding to this ridiculousness. Just keep your page updated and have people email you. —JamesSchwab

2008-11-18 14:36:14   I volunteered at Clinica Tepati for 3 and something years back in the day! That practically makes us family.

Good luck! —CurlyGirl26

2009-08-05 15:13:29   Greetings Mo, just thought I'd stop by and say hi.

I really hope the case with blood drives on UC Davis campus makes progress. You know I totally support the removal of campus funding to blood-drives as long as they continue to disallow me, as an LGBT person, to donate blood.

=] —ThUn

2009-08-26 23:05:50   Men who have sex with other men are usually at an increase risk of having HIV/AIDS, and the prevalence and incidence rates continues to rise.. Perhaps you should consider telling the gays to stop barebacking and pnp'ing.

—OscarWao

• Care to point us towards some evidence? Because I'm calling bullshit. -JoePomidor
• http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/docs/FastFacts-MSM-FINAL508COMP.pdf I was outraged by the article in the Aggie, that anyone would suggest ending blood drives on campus, but after reading Mo's position, I don't think he's being unreasonable. The national blood drive policies also discriminate based on national origin, past diseases, and about a million other things that would be illegal for employment. It's not like men-who-have-had-sex-with-men are being singled out. There is no "right" to give blood, hence I don't think this is an issue that should be framed in terms of rights or harmful discrimination. The blood banks got burned hard in the 80's for their resistance to change, and many people became infected as a result. The current policy errors on the side of caution, and that's not going to change anytime soon. As for trying to split hairs about risky behavior, they don't let you give if you've been in Britain for more than 3 months because of mad cow disease, even if you're a vegetarian. -BrianNeal
• I HIGHLY doubt you are sincere about this, especially since you made a sockpuppet account to post this comment. But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and tell you this: the rules don't discriminate against people who bareback, they discriminate against ALL men who have sex with men, even if they have only ever had safe sex. That's the problem here, in my opinion. —jsogul