Greek slate fliers questioned
By Rashmi Nijagal
Daily Bruin Staff
Amid all the controversy over the Bruin Democrats’ advertisement
endorsing the Students First! slate, the Transfer Student
Association is also accusing the greek slate of false
advertising.
The object in question is a flier titled "The Greek Slate" which
lists candidates followed by a statement that these leaflets were
paid for by the Transfer Student Association. However, members of
the association said they did not pay for the fliers and accused
the greek slate of falsely advertising with the organization’s
name.
"(The greek slate) did get permission to use the association’s
name on the flier," said Matthew Swanlund, executive vice president
of the Transfer Student Association. "We did not, however, pay for
the fliers. I handle the accounts and budget of the association,
and we did not pay for it."
Currently, student welfare and general representative candidates
on the Students First! slate must go through re-election as a
result of a judicial board ruling that the election results of
these races were illegitimized by a Daily Bruin advertisement used
by the Bruin Democrats to endorse the Students First! candidates.
Students who initially brought the case to the election board claim
the endorsement is false advertising since the Bruin Democrats are
not an official endorsing group and cannot legally endorse any
candidate.
Swanlund, however, said the greek slate is being
inconsistent.
"If they are going to accuse the Students First! slate of
subverting the rules, they should follow the rules themselves,"
Swanlund said. "For me, it is more of a matter of integrity and
ethics than it is about honesty or misleading people. It is
hypocritical, obviously."
Cheryl Chang, newly elected general representative whose name
was listed on the flier, said she could not comment about the flier
before speaking to others on the greek slate about the
situation.
Other candidates listed on the flier were unable to be reached
for comment.
The election board does not have any way to check whether a
group actually pays for literature or not.
"We are not going to check to make sure that an endorsement slip
is legitimately paid for by the group," said Nikki Vivion, election
board chair.
"We would address any complaint brought to our attention by the
endorsing group mentioned on the leaflet."
Currently, the Transfer Students Association has not made any
plans to file a complaint with the election board about the
flier.