2008 Woodie Awards
Controversial election held no hearings
Joel Ebert
Issue date: 4/28/08 Section: News
Media Credit: Nirav SanghaniNegative messages, like this one found outside University Hall, violate university Standards of Conduct.
Last week the Election Planning Committee (EPC) reviewed all the complaints that were filed in the recent election for student trustee and determined that the results were valid, with James Winters remaining the winner. In the midst of the review process, the EPC determined that there was no need to hold hearings, despite the presence of controversial activities including negative campaign fliers and chalking activities.
In previous elections, hearings have been held to examine complaints surrounding various issues including campaigning within 25 feet of University-owned computers, advertisement violations and slander.
This year, Assistant Dean of Students and EPC advisor Malcolm Smith said that he saw no need for a hearing to be held. "There was little to no evidence outside of circumstantial [evidence]," Smith stated. "It's important for people to know that feelings and speculation aren't necessarily evidence."
Some of the evidence that was submitted included violations of chalking location rules. Under the student election packet guidelines, chalking is not allowed "in areas protected by canopies or other building elements." There are some students that believe that this policy was violated.
Fourth-year student Nirav Sanghani said, "I found chalking supporting [candidate] James Winters underneath the Science and Engineering Labs (SEL), which is a clear violation of the rules."
Sanghani also believed that there were violations of UIC Standards of Conduct, explaining that he found "Chris Olson is a liar" underneath the entrance of University Hall. He explained that this was a violation because it is a message giving false and misleading information about a candidate that was running for student trustee, a University process which is defined in the Student Disciplinary Policy handbook.
There were also numerous complaints due to the presence of the negative campaign fliers from all of the candidates running for trustee. Winters said that he ran into some of the people that were distributing such fliers, adding that he notified EPC advisor Malcolm Smith immediately. Winters was upset that the campaign featured negative ads, expressing that he wished "there was a way for students to go directly to the EPC" to file a complaint about a candidate, if they had a problem with one.
|
In previous elections, hearings have been held to examine complaints surrounding various issues including campaigning within 25 feet of University-owned computers, advertisement violations and slander.
This year, Assistant Dean of Students and EPC advisor Malcolm Smith said that he saw no need for a hearing to be held. "There was little to no evidence outside of circumstantial [evidence]," Smith stated. "It's important for people to know that feelings and speculation aren't necessarily evidence."
Some of the evidence that was submitted included violations of chalking location rules. Under the student election packet guidelines, chalking is not allowed "in areas protected by canopies or other building elements." There are some students that believe that this policy was violated.
Fourth-year student Nirav Sanghani said, "I found chalking supporting [candidate] James Winters underneath the Science and Engineering Labs (SEL), which is a clear violation of the rules."
Sanghani also believed that there were violations of UIC Standards of Conduct, explaining that he found "Chris Olson is a liar" underneath the entrance of University Hall. He explained that this was a violation because it is a message giving false and misleading information about a candidate that was running for student trustee, a University process which is defined in the Student Disciplinary Policy handbook.
There were also numerous complaints due to the presence of the negative campaign fliers from all of the candidates running for trustee. Winters said that he ran into some of the people that were distributing such fliers, adding that he notified EPC advisor Malcolm Smith immediately. Winters was upset that the campaign featured negative ads, expressing that he wished "there was a way for students to go directly to the EPC" to file a complaint about a candidate, if they had a problem with one.
Be the first to comment on this story