Senate denies candidates' appeal
By MICHAEL CHAMBLISS
News Writer
Student Body Vice President Trip Foley presided over Wednesday's Student Senate meeting where candidate for student body vice president Mike Kirsch put forth a controversial appeal on behalf of his both himself and his running mate, presidential candidate, Mike Bott.
"Several complaints were received after the Cavanaugh and Knott dances last weekend about Bott and Kirsch campaigning in violation of election bylaws," said Danielle Ledesma, Judicial Council president.
The main allegation was that Bott and Kirsch had hung an unapproved campaign sign in the LaFortune Ballroom, an area managed by Student Activities.
The election council met Monday and identified the laws in question. Subsequently, five members of the executive council met, found Kirsch and Bott in violation of three laws, and imposed a sanction.
The five council members ruled that no new campaign material would be approved for Kirsch and Bott until the general election ends at 8 p.m. Monday night.
Article 6 of the election bylaws explicitly states that campaigning in a space affiliated with the Student Union Board is forbidden.
In addition, Article 10 states that the election committee must receive receipts from the purchase of any new campaign materials, and Article 12 states that all new campaign materials must be approved before use.
At the Senate meeting, Kirsch admitted that neither the receipts nor the sign were presented or approved.
Kirsch and Bott did, however, have a problem with the guilty ruling they received with respect to article six.
Kirsch claims he received permission from Judicial Council Vice-President of Elections Matt Corgan to campaign at the dance.
At the time, both Corgan and Kirsch were unaware that the dance was to be held in the LaFortune Ballroom.
Although hanging campaign posters is prohibited on the second and third floors of LaFortune, Kirsch claims that he was unaware that campaigning in the ballroom is also a violation of the by-laws, and hung the sign thinking he had permission to do so.
"He gave us permission to do something, and then reprimanded us for it," said Kirsch.
Kirsch came to the Student Senate to appeal the ruling on Article 6. After some debate, the Senate voted but the motion to exonerate Bott and Kirsch failed to net the necessary 2/3 vote.
Had the motion passed it probably would have done little to mitigate the pair's punishment.
"For the most, the sanction was based on the violation of article 12," said Corgan.
In other Senate news:
u Amy O'Connor, chairman of the Club Coordination Council, and Andrew Oxenreiter, Student Union treasurer, presented their plan to institute a mechanism that would automatically adjust the student activities fee in order to cut down on year-to-year debate.
The proposal would have the fee increase each year by the same percentage increase as tuition.
"We are still far behind compared to other universities. At our sister school Saint Mary's it's $150," said O'Connor of the current activities fee.
u Sorin Hall Senator Jeremy Staley reported that the Committee on Academic Affairs would look into the practice of some professors of submitting the work of an entire class to Turnitin.com. "They are doing a guilty until proven innocent thing. I believe it's unacceptable," said Staley.
All News Stories for Thursday, February 6, 2003
