Active Voice
When David Woodley was elected president of Coastal’s Student Government Association (SGA) for the 2000-2001 academic year, he took his job description seriously. Taking an oath to lead the organization whose primary function is to represent student opinion and serve as the liaison between students and the administration, Woodley says he felt duty bound to speak out in behalf of his fellow students.

That his zeal took some members of the administration by surprise, occasionally resulting in the butting of heads, is something about which Woodley feels neither proud nor apologetic. To him it’s simply his job. To do less would be to shirk his duty.

David Woodley

Woodley, a senior sociology major from Lancaster, S.C., feels that his most important achievement as SGA president has been taking the lead in organizing “Erase the Hate,” a week-long series of events held this past February focusing on multicultural understanding on campus. Although there have been no reported incidents of hate-related violence at Coastal, the issue of multicultural freedom is one that Woodley felt, based on his own pulse-taking of the student community, needed raising.

“It’s something I feel strongly about,” he says. “Even though there are events in place on campus which have helped promote a climate of understanding, I know from interacting with students that many do not feel full acceptance. Every student on campus, regardless of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, should feel equally valuable, equally free to express himself or herself.”

Erase the Hate events included campus forums led by student organizations inviting students to speak up about their concerns regarding diversity issues. The centerpiece of the event was a public screening of the documentary film “Journey to a Hate-Free Millennium,” about recent hate-motivated murders in America.

“The film drew about 400 people to Wheelwright Auditorium,” says Woodley, “and in the discussion afterward it was obvious that a lot of students were very moved and motivated by it. They were asking, ‘What can we do to help?’ I think that’s very positive.”

Woodley has also taken a strong stand in support of a better intramural field. The present field near the residence halls is inadequate and largely unusable because of drainage problems. Mindful of the dramatic rise in the number of students participating in intramural sports at Coastal, Woodley has advocated higher institutional priority for a better field – not a popular stance with the administration at a time of shrinking state budgets and many costly building projects on the waiting list.

From Woodley’s perspective, achieving something tangible for the students he represents is more important than popularity. As he graduates in May, he hopes that his tenure as SGA president will have made a difference, if even in a small way, particularly in the area of multicultural relations.

“I think it’s something I may have learned from my father,” says Woodley. “Everyone who walked into his office, no matter who they were, he made a point of treating them with equal respect. Respect is the key word. People talk about tolerance, but tolerance isn’t good enough. We have to respect each other.”