Student Senate Election Wrap Up

                Firstly, the Trojan Times as well as myself, Keegan Struble, would like to apologize to those of you that saw the original rendition of our first article which can be found here regarding the events surrounding the election nullification that has now been vetoed. Many of our readers found that the article did not state clearly enough that much of the information given to us at the time was based in rumor. This was not our intent. For those of you that missed it, the article went through a major editing process to rid it of anything not based in fact soon after its publication. We would also like to apologize to the student senate and Marcus Garstecki for any issues that the original rendition of the article may have caused. Though, we still stand firmly in saying that the nullification was a story that needed to be covered for the greater good of the student body as well as our college, and we are pleased with the outcome of Hunter Brindley and Nelofar Sultan being sworn in as the President and Vice President of the Student Senate respectively.

                I sat down with Hunter Brindley and Election Committee Chairman Josh Klosterman last Friday to discuss the final outcome of the election as well as the events and rumors which surrounded the election process. Brindley explained that the rumors regarding the nullification being based in race and religion “are not true” and that “it wasn’t a personal attack” on himself or Nelofar Sultan. Klosterman added that the nullification was based solely on the “fairness of election and policies.” The nullification occurred simply because many senators questioned that the ability of Brindley and Sultan as RA’s to place posters in the residence halls gave them an unfair advantage over the other candidates. Sid Moorhead vetoed this decision on April 17, citing multiple reasons including the fact that the names of Brindley and Sultan were on the ballot and the student body had voted before the nullification had occurred, the fact that rules involving the placing of election material in residence halls had not been enforced in previous elections, and that the rules were not clearly stated at the beginning of the election process.

                Brindley explained that there was a lot of “silver lining” in regards to this year’s election. In the process of the nullification and veto, the senate discovered many inconsistencies in regards to the election rules as well as policies found in the student handbook. Brindley explained that the senate discovered that DSU’s website contains links to more than one student handbook, further adding to the confusion which he said “needs to be fixed.” The student senate will “make sure a controversy won’t happen again.”

                Both Brindley and Klosterman expressed that even with the controversy surrounding the original decision, they were glad to see that the student body had taken such an interest in the election as well as seeing both sides expressing their views. Brindley said he was “glad to see so many students involved in the changing landscape of the university.”