Law student files complaint against GSA president

A law student filed a formal complaint against graduate student government president Nicole Robinson Tuesday, after she sent out emails to members of the student body that included the Bruin’s endorsement of her for re-election.

The Graduate Students Association elections started Tuesday at noon and are set to run until Monday at noon. Though UCLA Law student Steven Sabel filed the complaint Tuesday, the GSA Elections Board, in line with the elections code, will not handle the grievance until after voting closes, said Cindy Stanphill, GSA elections director, in an email statement.

Robinson said she sent the email to alert graduate students to the election and to provide them with endorsements from a neutral third party.

In the complaint, Sabel claimed that Robinson used departmental listserves to promote herself as a candidate, which is against GSA Elections Code.

But Robinson said she did not use listserves and instead she looked up publically available emails on department websites and went through her own email contacts to send out the emails.

The complaint also says that Robinson violated UCLA’s Acceptable Use Policies and the University of California Office of the President’s Electronic Communications Policy.

Robinson said she does not think she broke the GSA Elections Code or any university policy, and she thinks the complaint is unjustified.

The board plans to meet Tuesday next week. For now, elections will continue on as they were, Stanphill said in an email.

Compiled by Amanda Schallert, Bruin senior staff.