GSA Elections Board finds candidate guilty of violation
By Jessica Doumit
April 16, 2014 12:57 a.m.
The graduate student government elections board found a presidential candidate guilty of violating the elections code Tuesday night, but did not give any penalties for the infraction.
On the first day of Graduate Students Association elections last Tuesday, law student Steven Sabel filed a complaint against current President Nicole Robinson accusing her of using departmental listserves to send emails, thereby violating elections code. Complaints are not valid unless they are filed after the polls close, according to the GSA elections code.
Robinson said she did not use listserves and instead used emails she found on public websites and in previous emails sent by GSA.
Sabel sent his complaint to the Daily Bruin during the elections and also refiled his complaint after the elections ended Monday. In response, Robinson filed a complaint against Sabel on the basis that the article he prompted in the Daily Bruin caused damage to her image.
Internal Vice President Nina Drucker also filed an addendum to Sabel’s complaint against Robinson. Drucker said she thinks that Robinson copy and pasted email addresses from a listserve compiled for GSA purposes, which she said she thinks is unfair.
Some members of the board debated if Robinson used a “departmental listserve” and some said they thought the definitions laid out in the codes are unclear. Following more than an hour of discussion, the board voted 6-3-0 that Robinson did not use a “departmental listserve.”
Members debated on whether Robinson violated the intention of the “departmental listserve” policy, which they said was set in place to protect individual’s privacy and limit unfair advantages that larger academic departments might have over small departments.
Though the board decided that Robinson did not use an inappropriate listserve, it voted 7-1-0 deciding that Robinson violated the University of California Office of the President’s electronic communications policy by sending out the email.
Some board members said they thought Robinson should be disqualified from the elections for violating the code or some of her votes should be taken away. They referenced the disqualification of another candidate, Cody Trojan, the current vice president of academic affairs, at the beginning of the elections and said they thought it set a precedent for strict penalties for elections code violations.
During discussion, members accused each other of having biases toward certain individuals and trying to promote certain agendas with their votes.
The board decided to not punish Robinson in any way for breaking the code with a 5-4-0 vote because she may have already experienced repercussions from the Bruin’s article about the complaint. GSA Elections Commissioner Cindy Stanphill voted to break the tie at the meeting.
Compiled by Jessica Doumit, Bruin contributor.
