It is wholly unacceptable for Mark DiCristofaro and Brooke Feldman to act as if they are above the Student Union. They’re not even officially in office yet and already they are threatening to violate the constitution. They have no right to do so.
The fines levied against DiCristofaro and Feldman for grossly violating the Student Union Elections Committee´s rules are mild, and the vice president-elect and president-elect should be considering themselves lucky to get off so easy, rather than trying to weasel their way out of the punishment.
They need to take responsibility for their actions.
In yesterday´s Daily Free Press article, DiCristofaro talked about how he and Feldman were following Student Activities Office and university policy when they distributed their flyers a week early (“Feldman, DiCristofaro fined $200 for violating election rules,” April 27, p.1). He then went on to condescend to the Elections Committee, claiming that its members don’t know anything.
SUEC, which is part of the Student Union, is constitutionally required to make its own rules, which are then approved by its adviser, in this case SAO Director Carolyn Norris. Those rules included a system for punishing cheaters such as DiCristofaro and Feldman by fining them. They are not above the rules.
I can see where DiCristofaro would get a feeling of invulnerability, considering he cheated during last year´s vice presidential campaign as well. I still have the e-mail sent to the three candidates (DiCristofaro, Matt Bennett and myself) warning us that two of us had been caught putting up flyers in illegal locations and that if it happened again we would be disqualified. Since I did not cheat (I hadn´t even posted flyers yet) I knew DiCristofaro was one of the cheaters. Of course, it also helps that I´m the one who reported DiCristofaro after seeing his posters illegally placed on the doors of Sargent College. I´ll still never forget how his posters were removed after the warning, but then back the very next day on the same doors. I reported DiCristofaro again, but last year´s SUEC was bluffing when it threatened to disqualify DiCristofaro, so it took no action. So I can understand why DiCristofaro has no respect for the rules. He never has.
If DiCristofaro really had respect for the Student Union, he wouldn´t have refused to put the meeting minutes up until the winter, when I had to get involved. Then-secretary Ricky Junquera had submitted the minutes to DiCristofaro to post on the website since he was in charge of that. Instead of posting them, DiCristofaro treated Ricky like a small child by trying to tell him how to write his minutes and refusing to post them unless he changed his format. I was forced to step in to take care of that matter.
DiCristofaro has never had respect for the people he works with on committees either. Every week I hear about how he´s not communicating with the Substance Safety Committee and basically just doing things himself. It´s either Mark´s way or the highway, and that´s a ridiculously disgusting problem.
Despite all this, DiCristofaro still got elected to be the next Student Union vice president by getting votes from a whopping 7.24 percent of the undergraduates at Boston University.
So I am putting DiCristofaro and Feldman on notice. You broke the rules. Now take responsibility for your actions and pay the fines. Respect the institution that you have recently been elected to preside over. Or I will personally lead the impeachment proceedings.
Jonah Goldberg COM ’07 Student Union vice president