Usually I try to steer this column away from the drama of the UCSD political sphere and keep strictly to mocking ridiculous current events through sarcastic yet insightful social commentary, but after the April 5 A.S. presidential debate in front of the Triton Athletes Council, I have to speak up.

In case you missed it, I’ll fill you in. During the debate, audience members were able to ask then-candidates Marco Murillo, Dan Palay, Mike “”Hershey”” Hirshman and Junaid Fatehi questions relevant to athletics. While Murillo, Palay and Hirshman responded thoughtfully, carefully and politically to each query, Fatehi was characteristically blunt (and characteristically intoxicated, I suspect).

Let’s be honest: Fatehi is a fan of beer, not apple juice. And at the debate, he openly admitted that none of the audience members would like what he had to say, making no effort to hide his resentment over the recent fee referendum. Clearly in the wrong crowd to be anything but cautious when discussing topics like the referendum, game attendance and school spirit, Fatehi quickly annoyed onlookers.

To be fair, there were moments when Fatehi was being outright rude. If there’s one thing about him, he’s not afraid to say what’s on his mind, and in this case it meant telling a room full of athletes he thought they were assholes. But what shocked me was not Fatehi’s behavior but that of debate “”moderator,”” TAC chairman and John Muir College senior Dan Noel.

As tension grew at the debate, and audience members began to ignore Fatehi’s presence entirely, it was the duty of the moderator to buffer hostility and act as a calming intermediary. Instead Noel decided to attack Fatehi directly, asking him questions like why the athletes’ referendum money should be used to purchase free beer for him. (To which Fatehi responded that it would be his money paying the new fee.)

Maybe I’m just crazy, but I find it spectacularly inappropriate, and more than just a tad unprofessional, for a moderator to suddenly start targeting an individual. And Fatehi had a good point: We’ve just decided to spend three times the entire A.S. budget on 700 people’s extracurricular activities. That means we’re giving 3 percent of students three times the funding of everyone else combined – because they have good hand-eye coordination.

But when this was hinted at during the debate, Noel was quick to declare that schools like UCLA and Duke University are academically respected because of their strong sports programs, and that UCSD will only earn scholarly respect by embracing athletics.

What?

Forget for a moment that the TAC figurehead just implied UCSD athletes need to emulate those from Duke (this statement was made before that school’s rape case was dismissed), and help me understand how academic prestige is equivalent to a strong athletics program.

Schools like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology, Brown University and Johns Hopkins University (I’m sure you’ve heard of them?) are all nationally recognized, while none of them has beyond a Division III athletics program. (Except for Johns Hopkins, which has a Division I lacrosse team.)

Fascinating logic like this continued, and Noel became even more outrageously out of line as the debate came to a close. “”What kind of moderator harasses a candidate like that?”” I thought to myself as Murillo, Palay and Hirshman politely stood to exit. Fatehi lingered a moment in his chair as Noel announced it was time for all nonathletes to leave.

As Fatehi began a rant about the polarizing effect the referendum had on the campus, Noel barreled down on him. The petite hurdler got right up Fatehi’s face and demanded he leave immediately in a voice that clearly implied: “”If people weren’t watching, me and my buddies would have already jumped you like we did all those nerdy kids in high school.””

Then Noel had the audacity, the impudence, to pull Fatehi’s unlit cigarette out of his mouth and throw it on the ground. I can’t remember the last time I was so shocked and disgusted.

To put your hand in someone’s face and disrespect them like that crosses a line, and Noel’s conduct was horrific by anyone’s standards – anyone but the athletes watching, apparently.

Fatehi, on the other hand, stayed calm and collected the entire time even though he was being physically accosted.

Now, this isn’t about whether you like sports or how you voted on the athletics referendum – this is about treating people with a basic level of respect despite ideological differences.

I would like to think not all athletes are as bigheaded as Noel, or that his behavior at the debate was unusual. But as the guy Triton team members chose to moderate the debate, Noel was outrageously immoderate – and more disturbing, as Noel became more and more confrontational, no one in the crowd stood up to stop him.

I know the election has been won and the athletics referendum has been passed. But I need to take a stand, because this isn’t about athletics, or politics – it’s about respect.

In the name of human decency and simple common courtesy, I challenge all the individuals who chose Dan Noel to represent them to take a long hard look in the mirror and ask themselves just why it is they feel so entitled that they aren’t outraged at the way Fatehi was treated as a guest in front of their council.