The Senate Election Appeals Committee has ordered the Starr and Urooj tickets to meet this week through the Conflict Resolution Center to discuss the Starr ticket’s appeal of the Senate election.”Several students, including the Starr ticket, have raised concerns and questions about campaign tactics in the recent Senate election,” said Mona Olds, committee chair and dean of student life.
Melissa Starr, the losing candidate for Senate president, made the appeal three days after the Feb. 19 election.
“What I firmly want is serious reform to make the rules clearer and specify definite consequences to behavioral infractions so this doesn’t happen in the future,” Starr said.
Tamara Asad, vice president-elect on the Urooj ticket, said that her ticket does not know the appeal’s exact allegations yet.
“We still feel that we did not harass anybody, and we did not violate any rules together,” Asad said. “My hope is that we solve this whether it’s a miscommunication or a misunderstanding, because this is not a personal issue with the Starr ticket.”
James Tatum and David Kaplan, who manned the election in Founders lobby from 7:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., also raised concerns to the committee and the two tickets through a letter sent five days after the election.
“I read last week’s Guilfordian and saw that it wasn’t just the two of us with concerns,” Kaplan said. “We both sensed that there were general misunderstandings the committee would want to know about.”
Tatum is the managing editor for The Guilfordian.
Olds, Starr, Asad, Tatum, Kaplan, and Rebecca Saunders, student activities and events planning coordinator, all declined to comment on the Starr appeal’s specific complaints against the Urooj ticket before the remediation occurs.
“I don’t want charges made public that would hinder the constructiveness of the appeals process,” Saunders said. “I’m optimistic it’ll come forth through the committee and that Senate will be made better for it.