2008 Woodie Awards
BOT candidates caught campaigning early
Ed Komenda
Issue date: 4/2/08 Section: News
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"Both BOT candidates have been before the committee on charges of early campaigning," said Tara Short, SGA campaign coordinator.
Antonides' problems began when an anonymous source passed on e-mails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. One of the e-mails was addressed to various Western athletic coaches and dated March 6 - more than a week before the March 17 start date for official campaigning.
"It was the e-mail that he sent out to the rest of the coaches to come to their meeting," Short said. "There is a paragraph in there that states reasons why he's a better candidate than Jessie."
She added that all candidates must follow all state and federal laws as well as the Student Code of Conduct. The latter is where Antonides' violated the rules.
"If you're going to set up a meeting, that's fine, set up a meeting, but don't campaign to them, because they're going to say 'yes' or 'no,'" Short said.
As with any charge, Antonides was denied certain privileges that would be acceptable under regular campaigning rules.
"He cannot campaign at Western Hall, and he cannot campaign in the (student) rec center," Short said. "We felt that those were two buildings that most athletes would go into and use the most."
Also contained in the e-mails was a line of correspondence between Antonides and Western Athletic Director, Dr. Tim Van Alstine. The earliest of those e-mails is dated February 25, 2008.
"He sent initial e-mails to Van Alstine to set up meetings during campaign time," Short said. "The e-mails between him and Van Alstine were fairly clean."
According to Antonides, he spoke with Van Alstine about student fees and how Western is currently far behind other schools in funding athletics. He added that they spoke of a gradual athletics fees increase.
Kallman found herself in hot water as well after a campaign video was found on the popular Web site YouTube. The video was allegedly posted nearly a week before the official campaigning date.
"You can't put a video on a Web site for campaigning purposes, especially when it's a Web site you know students use," Short said.
According to Short, Kallman was charged with a one-week suspension from campaigning, after which she began to campaign promptly at 12 a.m. on March 21, according to Kallman.
Joe Lanane, current SGA vice president, said he had a hunch that the apparent "dirtiness" of the BOT race is a result of a heightened sense of competition.
"There is definitely a lot more animosity compared to last year's race; it's about as clear as night and day," Lanane said. "Since the BOT race is the only competitive race this year with a ballot vote, the animosity is a lot clearer."
Viewing Comments 1 - 7 of 9
Jimmy Peterson
posted 4/02/08 @ 4:57 PM CST
Campaigning rules on this campus are a joke - whether we are looking at the BOT elections or Homecoming Royalty. Why don't we just start accepting the fact that in the real world people campaign and let our candidates behave however they will behave and let us draw our conclusions from there. (Continued…)
Jimmy Peterson
posted 4/02/08 @ 5:04 PM CST
CENSORSHIP... nice.
James Scott
posted 4/02/08 @ 7:18 PM CST
As a former Senator-at-Large and longtime SGA member, I'm finding this to be a little too much. What should have been a contest between two strong candidates has been turned into a laughing stock by one of the campaigns Ms. (Continued…)
Terri VanMeenen
posted 4/03/08 @ 11:57 AM CST
First, I am glad to see students out there actually campaigning, GO DEMOCRACY! SGA does far to much to keep elections uncontested, and has a history of only advertising elections after they are sure all elections are without contest. (Continued…)
Cyndi
posted 4/03/08 @ 3:43 PM CST
I have servered on the election committee in the past and each person who runs for a office are given a set of rules they need to follow. It was sad this year that we did not much of a race except for B. (Continued…)
Terri
posted 4/04/08 @ 2:46 AM CST
I applaud those in SGA who have worked to address these discrepancies, and I implore them to be more vocal in their opposition to practices which limit the democracy of our student population. (Continued…)
James Scott
posted 4/04/08 @ 12:01 PM CST
Unless the SGA Bylaws were amended since then (there's no way to tell since none of the SGA governing documents are available online), the actual election rules in the Bylaws are nearly ten years old. (Continued…)
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