Breaking News

United Students to file appeal

By Brianne Pfannenstiel

Thursday, April 16, 2009

United Students said it planned to file an appeal with the University Judicial Board today to contest a decision made by the Student Senate elections commission hearing board Tuesday.

The hearing board found United Students vice presidential candidate May Davis, Clay Center junior, guilty of improper contact with members of the elections commission who were also members of her sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. The offense is classified as “egregious” in the elections code and prohibits the convicted offender from holding any appointed or elected position within Senate for the next 12 months. The appeal calls for a reconsideration of that decision.

Brian Hardouin, Denver second-year law student, who presented the case and filed the appeal on behalf of United Students, said the appeal would address several procedural errors made by the hearing board. He said that the complaint was not filed on time and that the board failed to notify United Students of the complaint two days before the hearing. If the judicial board, the body to hear the appeal, agrees that procedural errors occurred, the decision to remove Davis from the election would be overturned.

Jan Sheldon, judicial board chairwoman, said that the timeline the board operated on would depend on several factors, including how soon an appeals panel could gather and hear information. She said that the judicial board would have 30 days following the hearing to submit a decision.

“The judicial board will try to follow its procedures to ensure that all the parties are treated fairly,” Sheldon said. “We wouldn’t go outside of the procedures but we would try to follow those as expeditiously as we can.”

Hardouin said he was concerned that the board’s decision would come so late. However, Davis said that in the meantime, she planned to continue campaigning.

“We’ve worked hard to reach out and to find senators to run with us who are excited to get started,” Davis said. “I’m going to help them just as much as I would have if I wasn’t going through this situation.”

If the judicial board chooses to uphold the original decision to expel Davis from the election, United Students would have four days to name a new vice presidential candidate. If it is overturned and United Students wins the election, Davis will be allowed to serve as student body vice president. Because of the length of the judicial process, the decision could take up to six weeks after the close of the election.

— — Edited by Carly Halvorson

Comments

leehuaitu (anonymous) says...

May Davis = Cookies

A friendly reminder,
Tutu Lee

April 16, 2009 at 8:55 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Jhitt (anonymous) says...

She shouldn't have remained on the ballot.

If I'm convicted of a crime by a lesser court I don't wait until my appeal is heard before I feel the pain of my sentence.

Then again, it hurts US to be associated with someone who's had as much negative front page coverage as she has so I suppose it's not that bad after all. Everyone who isn't Greek and naive is not going to vote for a girl who has been kicked off by the commission for ethics violations when the opp coalition is running ethics reform.

April 16, 2009 at 8:56 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

ladymay (anonymous) says...

How much power does Jan Sheldon hold in this situation? Both of her daughters (and most likely herself as well) are members of Alpha Chi Omega, so she has a direct connection to the house. My guess is Davis will probably get away with her sketchy politics.

April 16, 2009 at 10:15 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

wcook (anonymous) says...

All of this is really a moot point now that Ms. Davis is back on the ballot, regardless of the fact that she'll be barred from holding office if she wins, the option to vote for her is still there. If the option to vote for a known-corrupt politician (the Elections Commission hearing is a public event, anyone could attend and bear witness, and the results were known by the majority of potential student-voters within hours of the event) is present, then it weakens the voter's faith in all of the other candidates on the ballot.

If nobody knows what any of our candidates stand for, and the few of us that vote are only voting for them because we know them personally in the first place, then why do we have student senators to begin with?

It undermines one of the core, foundational assumptions of our republican system of government both here at KU and in our society as a whole if you can't trust in the candidates running for office - let alone the Senators actually in office.

This speaks of major issues that need to be addressed in the way we conduct our Student government - immediately. I think too many of us are overlooking two critical facts here; 1) our Student Senators are in charge of massive amounts of money, and are capable of affecting our every day lives in several, colossal, ways - from raising our lower student fees to the services offered by the University, to the rules and regulations that we all must live by; 2) as several people have pointed out, this is an academic setting. If a student entering into law/politics can't be trusted even at the "simple" and "lowly" level of a college Student Senate, than how could they ever be trusted in any other position of power?

{+5 exp for an extra long rant, cross-posted from the April 14th "Davis will remain on ballot, election will continue as scheduled" story}

April 16, 2009 at 10:16 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

ladymay (anonymous) says...

"If a student entering into law/politics can't be trusted even at the "simple" and "lowly" level of a college Student Senate, than how could they ever be trusted in any other position of power?"
Well put, wcook.

April 16, 2009 at 10:22 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

fineandmellow (anonymous) says...

In local and national elections people vote based on party lines because it is easy and you don't actually have to research anything about the candidates. At KU student senate coalitions do not have fundamental differences anymore. When it comes to the legislation passed people don't vote based on party lines. Coalitions will take credit for things senate or boards of senate actually did (Envision's Sustainability platform=SEAB project).

Emma Goldman called voting the opiate of the people. Maybe, regardless of who wins nothing will really be that different.

Actually, if Students of Liberty wins senate will be ridiculous and the administration will lose respect for it.

Diana Rhodes 09!

April 16, 2009 at 10:30 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

delta77 (anonymous) says...

If the elections commission hearing was a "public event" where anyone could "attend and bear witness", then how could information from said hearing be considered CONFIDENTIAL???

If you have read the testimony and know the situation then you know that this whole thing is a farce.

April 16, 2009 at 10:52 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

delta77 (anonymous) says...

Let's see what other random acts of desperation Envision pulls in the final hours.

April 16, 2009 at 10:53 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

handy (anonymous) says...

I agree, Diana Rhodes 09!!

April 16, 2009 at 10:57 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

wtfmate (anonymous) says...

In response to fineandmellow's post, the sustainability platform was not a SEAB project. Three members of Envision and Andrew Stanley advocated for the approval of the Re-Rev project to be funded through SEAB during the first meeting in March(which it did), but that idea was not one that originated from SEAB itself.

In response to delta77, the only thing that is confidential is the deliberations. They go into what is called executive session where they deliberate privately. That information is supposed to remain confidential, but everything else including the decsion and testimonies are public record

April 16, 2009 at 12:09 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

rlawler (anonymous) says...

I will third the motion, Diana Rhodes 09!!! Although, how will she accomplish anything if solitaire isn't removed from her computer?

April 16, 2009 at 9:26 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

handy (anonymous) says...

Haha! We can write some legislation to remove solitaire, but it would definitely get vetoed. :) A Rhodes administration would have quite a bit of gossiping in the office, I'm all for it!

April 18, 2009 at 5:06 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Advertisement