Welcome to the archives of the Independent Student Coalition (ISC). Currently the archives are under construction -- information will therefore be organized rather randomly for the time being and may not yet be complete. Please be patient and if there is any particular material you are seeking, please let us know.
1989 marked the beginning of the organizations that eventually formed the Independent Student Coalition. The first organization was Students for a Better World(SBW) which was formed in the Spring. SBW quickly became mired in the events surrounding activities in China during the Chinese Democracy Movement. Founded by Charlie Grapski, the organization focused its efforts along with Grapski's as a member of a national organization -- the China Support Network. During that summer, Grapski sought a seat as a replacement senator in the Student Senate. After being denied a number of times the Senate agreed to let him in. In the fall Grapski and a few other candidates running for Senate as Independents decided to work together in order to attempt to compete more equally with the Florida Blue Key (FBK) party then calling themselves the SUN party. They formed what was to become known as the informal "Independent Coalition."
Although they were not officially classified as a party, this informal coalition enjoyed the highest success rate for Independent candidates in recent memory. After winning re-election to the Senate, Grapski decided that such an organization was essential to the prospects of Independent candidates in competing against the FBK machines in the future. That fall he formally created the Independent Coalition. Its mission was to organizae and inform Independents to come together and work collectively to represent the Student Body.
1990 brought the second aspect to the organization -- the attempt of the Student Body to perform the functions of government and representation, even when the offical Student Government failed to do so. In order to accomplish this, Charles Grapski, founder of the Independent Coalition and Minority/Independent Leader of the Senate, decided to create a second organization -- the Coalition of Concerned Students. The two organizations were to act independently yet in a coordinated fashion. Each had its own objective -- the Independent Coalition was designed to compete in Student Government elections, and to seek reform from within. The Coalition of Concerned Students (CCS) was to act when Student Government failed to -- regardless of whether or not the members held official office. The membership of the three organizations, SBW, the Independent Coalition, and CCS saw many of the members belonging to more than one of the entities -- while some students concentrated their efforts in only one.
That Spring the Independent Coalition declined to run as a party on the ballot, as became its policy, when a strong independent candidate decided to run a party in conjunction with his effort to be elected president. The purpose of this policy was to prevent the penalization inherent in the electoral mechanisms to the fractionalization of independents and to increase their chances through cooperation. As a result, the Independent Coalition was a part of the TODAY party's effort in the Spring election in the challenge to the FBK-backed party, which had taken on the new name of VISION. The yearly change of names during the spring election is the normal procedure for the FBK party. The Coalition of Concerned Students was quite active that summer and fall in the effort to save SARS (Sexual Assault Recovery Services) and COAR (Campus Organized Against Rape), two model organizations which had come under attack by the University. The University had taken on the idea that if UF had a top rated rape prevention and treatment program -- it signified that the university also had a problem with rape. In their efforts to destroy these programs -- SG was quite active on the side of the University administration. CCS contributed significantly to this fight -- and it slowed down the actions of the University and SG -- but within a year the programs had been gutted.
The fall elections once again brought the Independent Coalition to the ticket, as few others were interested in organizing fall parties when there were no executive offices up for election. Again the Independent Coalition ran against the FBK-backed VISION party.
It had appeared that the Independent Coalition would support a party in the Spring on which its founder, Charlie Grapski, would run for president. But late that winter Grapski was forced to leave school temporarily. In his absence, the members of the Independent Coalition participated in the election with the VOICE party. Unlike the normal spring, the FBK party retained the name of VISION for this race. The name of the VOICE party was retained in the fall elections, and again, members of the Independent Coalition participated in and supported its efforts.
In 1992 the Independent Coalition members began to fragment into different efforts to compete in SG elections. Many members worked on and ran with the ACTION party, which was successful in the executive race, while some participated in the UNITY party. ACTION had split off some of the FBK support from the FBK-backed GATOR party.
Efforts in the fall continued this fragmented nature. It appeared as if, with the fragmentation and disillusionment of many at the actions of the ACTION party -- that the Independent Coalition, which had lost much of its structure -- would disappear.
Spring elections brought a few challengers to the FBK party, now known as Progress, but the Independent Coalition members were fairly distant. Some worked on the challenging parties but many appeared to have become frustrated by the system.
It appeared that in the Fall of 1993 there would be no organized opposition to the FBK party now under the name of PROGRESS. The return of Charles Grapski to campus, however, resulted in a meeting of some of the remaining persons who had been involved in past activities that derived from the earlier Independent Coalition.
At that meeting it was determined to revive the two organizations, the Independent Coalition -- designed to compete within the confines of SG -- and the Coalition of Concerned Students -- designed to act outside of the confines of SG. The result was the Independent Student Coalition.
The Independent Coalition was intended to be an umbrella organization for the differing elements. Efforts first focused on the fall elections -- taking on the FBK backed PROGRESS party. A concerted effort was also made toward creating a foundational structure that would become less vulnerable over time than the previous two years had experienced.
New to the picture was a strategic effort to use the Judicial branch to enforce the laws -- and particularly the Constitution of the Student Body -- in order to guarantee a fair playing field for all students as well as the accountability of those who were elected. Grapski was joined in this effort by Todd Underhill, who became co-counsel with Grapski on most litigation efforts.
Also adding to the arsenal was a directed effort to learn and document the history of SG and associated institutions. This began the archives of the Independent Student Coalition.
The most significant case brought in the litigation strategy was a complex and comprehensive case built around the procedures of replacing vacant senators. Over 50 senate seats were challenged -- and the case threaten to overturn all actions of the Senate during the summer months -- including the multi-million dollar budget.
The case was decided in the favor of the ISC petitioners. The Board of Masters -- Supreme Court of SG -- ruled that the Student Government had denied the rights of the Student Body, and denied them representation, during the 1992-1993 academic year. Several Senate seats were vacated and a number of procedural questions were clarified.
In the spring, as was often the policy, the Independent Student Coalition declined to run a party and instead cooperated with an active independent campaign. Heading the ticket of the `94 party was a former Independent Coalition senator. The election pitted them against the FBK party which had once again taken on the name SUN, last used in 1989.
Again, a strategy of litigation remained the focus of much of the activities of ISC. Prior to the spring election, Charles Grapski brought forth the first of several legal challenges to the electoral mechanism and to the application of electoral laws. The case, for the first time, brought proof that the laws and their application guaranteed unfair results that would benefit the FBK-backed party. Using historical data, Grapski, assisted by co-counsel Todd Underhill, showed that the lopsided results of elections (in which the Florida Blue Key-backed party never won less than 88 percent of the seats) was not due to low voter turnout for non-FBK candidates and parties. In fact, the evidence showed that almost equal numbers of the students who actually turned out to vote supported the non-FBK candidates as did those who supported the FBK party.
The Board of Masters' decision did not overturn the elections system for that semester -- but the decision, 3-0 with one member submitting a separate concurring opinion -- hinged on elements the absence of the ISC plaintiffs to argue elements that would force the Board to act prior to an impending election. The concurring opinion, offered by Chancellor Lorien Smith, supported the plaintiffs argument -- which was the focus of this case -- that the Constitution of the Student Body required that each student should be allowed to cast only a single vote for a single candidate. The case was not lost -- instead it had to await additional arguments to be made in the future.
Another significant case was argued that spring, as Todd Underhill took the lead role while Grapski served as co-counsel, in a case that saw a previously unused body -- the Commission on Ethics -- convened for the first time in recent memory. The result was that a twelve-member body of random students found two persons guilty of ethich charges in relation to their activities during the SUN parties campaign against the `94 party. The two were removed from office and prohibited from hold future offices in SG.
Fall elections once again found the Independent Student Coalition organizing the only opposition against the FBK-backed SUN party. Things heated up significantly, as a series of litigation came early centered around elections. Taking up where he left off in the spring although absent the co-counsel of Underhill who was now serving as the clerk and chief investigator of the Honor Court, Grapski successfully challenged the legality of the electoral system.
The result was a stand-off, as the FBK-backed executive and legislative branches tried to strong-arm the judicial branch. The court ordered the legislature to reform the electoral system before further elections would be held. Attempting to over-rule the court, the Senate and then the President attempted to act to hold elections. An injunction brought Student Government to a standstill. Using two FBK members on the Board of Masters, and prohibiting the scheduled replacement of the fifth member -- FBK deadlocked the court from taking further actions.
Two months went by without elections. Then, as tensions mounted, the two non-FBK members of the Board of Masters gave in and allowed elections to proceed under what was essentially the same system they declared unconstitutional. There hope was that the end to the deadlock and standstill would result in the appointment of the fifth member -- and then the case could be finalized after the fall elections but before any future elections. They were mistaken -- for once the elections were held -- the Board was intentionally kept in a deadlock until after the following years elections. FBK had decided to take over the Judicial branch -- and they did in 1995.
The spring campaign introduced the first new element of ISC since the merger of the Independent Coalition and the Coalition of Concerned Students. The function of running a party in SG elections, at one time reserved to the Independent Coalition, and later taken on by the full organization -- went to the newly formed INDEPENDENT MAJORITY. The executive ticket featured ISC founder Charlie Grapski as president, the president of the Inter-Residence Hall Association, Ray Plaza, as vice-president, and the treasurer of the Journalism College Counsel, Carlos Herrera, for the position of treasurer.
It also featured a large slate of candidates for the various Senate seats. Controversy mounted as the election was used to bring to light the various elements of the application of the electoral laws, by the members of SG responsible for that application, who were all appointed by and active in the FBK political machine.
The spring elections also offered an example of how SG could advertise elections and inform the Student Body if they chose -- as ISC diverted important resources and manpower from the Independent Majority campaign into a non-partisan effort called Get The Vote Out. Piet Niederhausen, ISC Senator from the College of Archetecture, spearheaded this drive to mobilize the Student Body.
Throughout the spring another new element under the ISC umbrella was active. That was S.O.S. -- Save Our Schools, an organization designed to empower students in an effort to seek reforms that would make the educational institutions of the state and nation higher in quality. The timing of the emergence of this group, established by ISC founder Grapski who was serving as the Senator from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Niederhausen while preparing to attend a meeting of the Board of Regents, which oversees the Florida State University System, was significant. That spring efforts to significantly decrease the funding of an already underfunded university system became prevalent in the Florida legislature -- and a number of other policies that would negatively affect education were proposed both at the state and federal levels.
Fall semester was even more controversial, as the ISC and the Independent Majority subsidiary consciously decided NOT to run as a party -- or to inform anyone of the elections in the fall. The intent was to show the absolute negligence of the SG officials. The result was as predicted -- no one knew about the elections or how to run -- and the FOCUS party, the name the FBK-backed party assumed in the spring, ran virtually unopposed.
ISC, however, was not absent from the elections. It formed another subsidiary organization -- the Committee for Student Sovereignty (CSS). Dedicated to forcing the issue that SG is not legitimate and that it does not exist with the consent of the Student Body, ISC through CSS proposed an initiative to restart SG -- a clean slate -- to be placed on the fall ballot. Overwhelming support from students was shown as over 1,100 signed the petition in less that two days.
As predicted, SG refused to allow the students the opportunity to vote on the initiative. However, as a result of the ensuing controversy the administration was forced to take some form of action -- as it became undeniable that the Student Body was not content with nor did it consent to SG. The president of the University then created a Task Force to investigate problems in SG.