Electoral dysfunction, again

The unofficial election results are in: Junior Roshina Khan won the race for Student Member of the Board of Trustees; Saad Jamil won the race for President of USG; and Raza Jafri, running unopposed, won the race for Vice President of USG.

In the race for UIC Senate, Sean Williams eeked out slightly more votes than Neill Drumm.

But the election process is not over yet.

Sources indicated to the Chicago Flame that at least three complaints have been filed against Jamil for violating rules relating to the placement of his posters. If found guilty of the infractions, he could be disqualified.

Jamil did not respond to a request for comment although sources with knowledge of the situation said he was "freaking out" about the complaints.

The Flame has also learned that several complaints were filed against trustee candidate Richard Stanton, which would not lead to his disqualification (he lost) but could be a headache for him nonetheless.

According to one of the complaints, filed by a student named Christina Demetrio and obtained by the Chicago Flame, two students -- Pedro Lopez and Kevin Roberson -- violated election rules by going door to door with a laptop in the dorms. The complaint reads:

"Pedro Lopez and Kevin Roberson were going door to door with a laptop telling people to vote for their friend, Rich Stanton. I later found out that they are pledges to BKZ and all pledges were required to campaign for Rich. Since Rich is responsible for these people he is at fault. I am a resident of Courtyard and they came to my door asking me to vote, though I had already."

The Flame sent a request for comment to Stanton, Roberson and Lopez, but they did not respond. BKZ President Alexandre Spassov Endiakov did, however, respond to our request for comment.

"By no means do we require any of our pledges to campaign for Richard, nor did we ask them to. We were not aware that anyone outside of Richard's campaign workers was campaigning. The pledges were not a part of Richard's campaign but felt they were helping Richard by doing this and did not know that it was against the election rules," wrote Endiakov. "Disciplinary actions for these individuals are currently under consideration by the fraternity."

It is unclear as of press time if any other candidates had complaints filed against them. Sources indicated to the Flame that Freshman Kenneth Thomas considered filing complaints against Khan for unspecified reasons but he was leaning against it.

The Dean of Students office would not comment on what complaints had been filed or against who. According to Willie Rodriguez, Associate Dean of Students, they were waiting to hear from legal counsel about whether or not those are protected education records.

Last Thursday's USG meeting was plagued by bickering, disorganization, and an extended leave of absence. The meeting started late due to confusion over where the meeting was taking place. Student organizations that sent representatives to ask USG for financial assistance had difficulty finding the meeting because they were not notified of its exact location. Once the meeting finally started student organizations were able to present proposals for funding support from USG. After each organization presents its request to USG, it is supposed to vote whether to approve the request. USG was unable to approve the requests because they did not have a current budget from the Committee of Budget and Finance. The committee was supposed to summarize USG's expenditures and remaining funds this week but was unable to. USG assembly members expressed dismay the fact that USG has had "no real budget for months."

It is unclear what the problem is but some cited administrative problems with receiving proper forms to compile the budget. It seems that student organizations that have already been approved to receive funding have not received their funds yet either. Joel Ebert expressed concern for USG's shortfalls stating that by not having a budget and not providing promised funds USG was doing a "disservice to student organizations." USG faculty advisor Dean Malcolm Smith asked "why has no one told me about this problem." Assembly members spent 20 minutes arguing whether to vote on the student organization funding, put off voting until next week, or vote on half of the proposals this week and the rest next week. It was finally decided that once the budget was compiled USG would revisit the proposals for a vote.

The only issue that USG was able to resolve was in support of a petition for a Pedestrian traffic sign at 18th Street and Halsted presented by Gabriel Zavala, a representative of the Martha Gonzalez Memorial Committee. USG members signed the petition and promised Zavala a booth in SCE where students could sign the petition that will be sent to Alderman Dan Solis.

USG also approved a request for leave of absence from the Chairperson of the Committee of Budget and Finance, Heather Kaufman. Kaufman requested a leave of absence until the end of the semester. Why she didn't resign, considering she will be gone for at least seven weeks, is unclear. Some members were surprised by her leave of absence. Joel Ebert felt that she left because of his numerous requests for a budget from her committee and her committee's inability to deliver it.

Ken Thomas was happy to report that USG was able to make contact with a representative from the Regional Transportation Authority who is willing to work with USG on behalf of the interests of students to get a Metra pass. USG voted to approve sending out a mass mail to students requesting information about student use of Metra. If USG is able to collect enough data they will be able to negotiate with the RTA for Metra train benefits for students.