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| Oscar Durand |
Michael Deyhim, former candidate for Student Government President,
claimed voting irregularities seriously hurt his election bid. “SG screwed
up,” he said. “After all the money and time I spent, [SG is saying] basically,
‘Screw you.’”
Deyhim’s problems started early on Monday morning, when a profile was
not posted next to his name on the election website. Deyhim had sent
an e-mail to RIT student and SG Systems Administrator & Developer Bob
Carroll the previous week, asking to review his profile. He did not receive a
response. “That was intentional,” said Carroll, “candidates have no reason
to contact me directly. I felt, ‘Wow, this guy is wasting my time.’”
A profile that was eventually posted for Deyhim came from information
in his elections packet, which under SG rules, had to be submitted by
March 28th. “SG may have had that data,” said Carroll. “I didn’t have that
data... It’s sad that there was a miscommunication internally, but these
things happen.”
Deyhim wanted to change that profile, and on Monday inquired with Carroll.
At about 8:30 p.m. that night, Carroll responded by e-mail: “I would
expect any serious candidate to put effort into his or her campaign... The
basic profile I posted was a courtesy to the candidates, not an obligation,”
he wrote. Carroll then listed technical requirements for the profile. He continued,
“Your complaint, while valid, ranks low on my list. It became nil
when you took on the attitude that SG owed you something. You might get
away with that nonsense with other people, but it won’t work with me.”
Other members of the Election Committee disagreed with that e-mail.
“Bob sent this e-mail as a representative of the Elections Committee without
having met with [them] to get their feelings. If there was a profile for
one candidate, there should have been a profile for all candidates. SG does
owe Michael something, and I would generally disagree [with the e-mail],”
said SG Vice President Sasha Malinchoc and Chair of the Elections Committee,
adding that she does not believe Carroll is biased.
Dr. Heath Boice-Pardee, advisor to SG and associate vice president for
Student Affairs, said, “I do not believe for one minute that [Carroll] would
skew data toward one candidate.” He also said, “I can’t speak for what Bob
said, or his choice of words.”
Colette Shaw, another advisor to SG, said that Carroll’s e-mail “was talked
about and addressed,” at a closed meeting of the Elections Committee.
“[The Committee] was making attempts to fix things. Their good will was
turning into confusion,” she said.
The Committee decided to extend the elections by three hours, so they
would end at 2:59 a.m. Friday morning. “That’s the amount of time other
candidates had profiles posted while his was missing,” said Shaw.
Following this announcement, Dr. Harvey Palmer, dean of the College of
Engineering, sent an e-mail to all engineering students endorsing Wolf
for SG President. “While I prefer to remain on the sidelines with respect
to Student Government elections, I do believe that it is in the college’s
best interests to have KGCOE students like Ed representing the interests
of students on the RIT campus,” he wrote. Palmer then urged students to
read a short paragraph written by Wolf and to visit his website.
A comment from Palmer was unavailable at press time.
Deyhim asked SG to seal the election results and disqualify Wolf and
Danna at its April 18th meeting. After adjourning to a closed session,
SG denied Deyhim’s motion and released the results, naming Wolf the
winner.
“There was so much misconduct by students, staff, and administration,”
Deyhim said. “I am not going to let this issue drop.” He said plans to introduce
an amendment to the SG bylaws making several changes “so these
mistakes cannot happen again.”
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