Student Assembly elections Thursday were dotted by instances of mass e-mail abuse and a technological glitch that briefly allowed graduate students to vote in undergraduate class elections.
At approximately 12:30 a.m. Thursday morning, Sen. Ben Brown ’11, chairman of the Council for Fraternity Affairs Judicial Board, sent an e-mail via the CFA listserv urging fraternity members to support Sarah Rojas ’10 and Ryan Ruzic J.D. ’11 for the positions of SA president and vice-president.
Approximately two hours later, Brown e-mailed a retraction of his statement.
“[CFA chairman] David [Cooper ’10] had talked to me, and I had talked to other people; and it might have seemed like [the] CFA had endorsed the specific ticket, and that was not my intention,” Brown said. “I signed my name and gave my opinion, which ultimately should not have been sent out of the listserv — and that’s why I issued the retraction.”
Cooper says that the statement was an inappropriate use of the listserv, and that he would be discussing it with the Greek Life office some time next week.
“To my knowledge, the CFA rules do not specifically prohibit such actions, but we will be reviewing that soon,” Cooper said.
At approximately 4 a.m., an anonymous e-mail urging students to vote against SA executive candidates Horacio Carreño ’10 and Michael Douglass ’11 was sent, in violation of SA code, to student e-mail adresses.
“Anonymous e-mails are not allowed by our code,” Sen. Matt Beato ’09. “You can e-mail as many [people] as you want, just not anonymously.”
Several hours later, Carreño and Douglass sent their own mass e-mail, urging students to ignore anonymous attacks on their character and instead focus on their platform. An hour later, their opponents, Rojas and Ruzic, also sent a mass e-mail urging discussion of “ideas, not mudslinging.”
A glitch in the College’s online-voting system allowed graduate students to vote in the undergraduate SA election.
The number of graduate voters exceeded the margin of victory in the 2010 senate race. According to Beato, it was the only race affected by the glitch. Beato, who serves on the senate Elections Committee, said that Eric Newman ’10 and Erik Houser ’10 will face off for the spot in a special election next week.
According to a table compiled by Beato, 18 of the 532 students who voted in the Senate 2010 election were graduate students.
This amounts to 3.38 percent of vote. Results show Newman captured only 0.57 percent more of the vote than Houser.
“I think [today] has exposed a lot of the things that need to be changed, but on the [other] hand, it exposed that the SA can get through these things, even if they’re tough,” Beato said. “And I’m happy that we were able to.”
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14 Comments
Has Ben Brown been punished
Has Ben Brown been punished by the CFA board yet? Interested to know.
As someone actually in a
As someone actually in a fraternity and not an anonymous Carreno/Douglass supporter, I can safely say that this e-mail didn’t at all affect my vote. You guys need to get over yourselves – you lost.
Has the CFA held their
Has the CFA held their disciplinary meeting yet, to discuss Ben Brown’s punishment? At the least, he needs to be permanently removed as a listserv admin, perhaps even fired from his CFA position. What a scandal.
A lot of Greeks are talking
A lot of Greeks are talking about Ben Brown being removed from his position. How can he be chair of the judicial board and nonetheless engage in such unethical behavior?
Just because you call it a
Just because you call it a “Greek” ticket doesn’t mean that their platform had the Greek’s best interests in mind. Just because they happen to be Greek doesn’t mean they know what is best for the Greek community. And one comment had a good point, only 30% of the college is Greek. So should helping Greeks really be our #1 priority anyway?
Wow, looks like Ben Brown
Wow, looks like Ben Brown is in some real trouble. If I’ve learned anything reading the Flat Hat for the last two years it’s that the internet commentators are always well informed, intelligent people who really have a finger on the pulse of the campus community. That’s why Carreno and Douglass won in a landslide. Wait…
Dear “SA leader” aka
Dear “SA leader” aka Ben Brown, you MISLED the Flat Hat. You deliberately emailed the fraternity member listserv, your ‘apology’ makes that explicit. You should be removed from your position in the Council of Fraternity Affairs, at the least. You are a poor excuse for a senator, and by no means an “SA leader.” You should be ashamed of yourself.
I have no idea who the
I have no idea who the contributors ‘SA Leader’ nor ‘fuck you’ are [nor the rest of the anonymous bullshit posts], but I can safely say that if you honestly think my [completely factual] e-mail to the fraternity community (i.e. the one where I stated one ticket was Greek and one was not) in any way lost Horacio/Douglass this election, you are far more misguided than I expected. [You lost by more than all of the fraternity community combined.]
Quite frankly, I find both campaigns’ use of data-mined, school-wide e-mail lists more of a problem than my issuing a statement over a legitimate listserv declaring my opinion that one ticket (i.e. the Greek one) better represented the Greek community.
Feel free to address me personally via e-mail if you feel so inclined (brbrown@wm.edu).
Your anonymous attacks are an embarrassment.
Ben Brown in a
Ben Brown in a conscientious and responsible leader of the student community. He made a call to support the ticket for
SA President/VP that he thought was the best, and btw, they won by a huge landslide, so the student obviously agree. I believe in Ben Brown!
What right did Ben Brown
What right did Ben Brown have to do that? His friends on the CFA board had enough tact to not abuse the listserv for their candidates. The greek community needs to hold him accountable and take away his authority to abuse the email list.
I agree completely,
I agree completely, something needs to be done about what Ben Brown did. Abusing a listserv (particularly such a massive one) is extremely inappropriate and unprofessional. I would expect a lot more tact from a member of the Greek community.
Ben Brown should be removed
Ben Brown should be removed from his position as a member of the CFA board. His actions were completely inappropriate and done behind the backs of other board members. His perfunctory apology was a second slap in the face. He needs to be held accountable.
Umm… your copy editor
Umm… your copy editor should check articles a little more closely:
“Several hours later, Carreño and Douglass sent their own mass
be joining the other senators next year. Despite this, Brown said he is optimistic about the new group of
senators.”
Yeah – someone seems to
Yeah – someone seems to have accidentally replaced the end of the article with the end of this one: http://www.flathatnews.com/content/70433/senators-discuss-election-upcoming-legislation. Hopefully the print version doesn’t have this same error.