USG supports trustee despite violations

By Jessica Wettig

 

The university’s Undergraduate Student Government has decided to support SIU’s student trustee in his fight to get back on the ballot.

USG held an emergency meeting Friday regarding a complaint issued by Nolan Sharkey, a graduate student and present student trustee opposing Jesse Cler in his re-election campaign, to remove him from the ballot. The complaint stated that among Cler’s 207 candidacy petition signatures, nine had to be thrown out because they duplicated names, lacked addresses or email addresses. As a result, 198 of the 207 required signatures were valid on Cler’s petition.

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The election commission, which consists of two undergraduate students and three graduate students and makes election process decisions, removed Cler from the ballot. However, not all commission members were present for the vote.

Cler said he submitted his petition March 8, and it was challenged March 9. The commission didn’t see the petition until 10 days later, and because of the time lapse the integrity of the election commission’s decision should be questioned, he said.

Senator Adrian Miller presented USG a resolution to nullify the decision to remove Cler from the ballot because there are fewer undergraduate representatives than graduate representatives on the commission. Commission guidelines state there are supposed to be three representatives from each body, he said.

“Every student who wants to run should be allowed to run,” Miller said. “I think this is fault of USG and the Graduate Professional Student Council for not having adequate rules.”

Election Commission member Peter Lucas said petitions require complete addresses, email addresses, signatures, printed names and phone numbers to be included with each petition signature, and the commission was only following the rules.

“I wish to God this wasn’t an issue,” Lucas said.

When the commission made the choice, both undergraduate members were unable to be present, he said. Election commission member Morgan Stewart said undergraduate representatives were not present because they did not get email notification in enough time and had class schedule conflicts.

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Despite the undergraduates’ absence, the graduate students unanimously voted to deny Cler’s candidacy.

“My heart tells me that the undergraduates deserve a voice in this process,” Miller said.

Lucas said all campus organizations would conduct the meeting the same as the commission, and a meeting wouldn’t be canceled just because one or two members didn’t come. Sharkey was also at the commission’s meeting, he said, but Cler was not. However, Lucas said neither candidate was invited.

Sharkey said he analyzed Cler’s petition, and it contains less than 200 signatures no matter what.

“There were never 200 signatures,” Sharkey said. “It was an easy burden for (Cler) to fill.”

Sharkey said the petition rules were clearly written, and both he and Cler signed a document that recognized the rules. The members who didn’t come to the election comission’s meeting should be replaced, he said.

Miller said USG allowed an extention to gain more signatures for a presidential candidate once and suggested the commission allow the same for Cler. Lucas said the rules vary for different campus organizations.

Cler said he has been attacked and disrespected throughout the appeals process. All of his signatures were verified by the university, he said, and the commission is nitpicking.

“It seems there’s always been a divide between the graduates and the undergraduates,” he said.

Cler said the opportunity to serve on the board and represent the undergraduate student body is amazing. To be denied the opportunity to run is wrong for any candidate pursuing the position, he said.

“In order to win this election, it seems (my opponents) have the mentality that they have to get rid of me first,” Cler said.

He said USG opposes the commission’s decision, while GPSC is in support.

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