A case that was originally filed with the Undergraduate Students
Association Judicial Board with the hopes of overturning the
results of last Thursday’s undergraduate student government
elections will be retracted before it is ever heard by the Judicial
Board.
“Though we disagree with the individual sanctions, we did
not want to put the students through another election,” said
Brian Neesby, elected general representative with Bruins United.
Neesby filed the case on behalf of his slate-mates Alex Gruenberg
and Jesse Melgares, who ran for the positions of president and
external vice president respectively and lost.
The case questioned sanctions faced by Bruins United that
resulted from an e-mail sent to all Hill residents by the On Campus
Housing Council endorsing Gruenberg and Melgares.
Action was taken by the Elections Board since the OCHC listserve
was found to be one that students don’t voluntarily join.
E-mails containing endorsements are not against the rules, as long
as they are circulated to e-mail lists that individuals voluntarily
sign up for.
Nathan Lam, Elections Board chairman, stands by his initial
decisions and said he saw the Judicial Board case to be a waste of
the Elections Board’s time.
Lam emphasized that the Elections Board will now focus on
recommendations they will make to the council in regards to the
Elections Code.
“There are many loopholes and they have been exploited by
both sides,” Lam said.
Neesby agrees that correcting the code is the best way to keep
such issues from occurring again and said he believes the sanctions
were unfair, but not biased. “There is a difference in my
mind,” he said.
Neesby said the case was initially filed on Thursday to avoid
the time constraint in place by the Elections Code. According to
the code, any appeals to a an Elections Board decision have to be
filed by the second official school day following the decision in
question.