Campus, News

SG holds 2nd election for College Governments chair

After an additional election and significant deliberation, Boston University Student Government Judicial Commission has confirmed College of Fine Arts sophomore Alexander Golob as chair of next year’s College Governments Presidents’ Council.

“We dealt with incomplete information from the start of the election,” the Judicial Commission said in a statement Monday. “We decided upon what was presented to us at the time and made decisions. However, through our investigation, we conclude that Alexander Golob is the winner of the President’s Chair.”

In the initial election, College of General Studies Student Government President Austin Kruger, a sophomore in the College of General Studies, won over Golob, president of CFA student government.

On Saturday, the SG Judicial Commission was brought in to verify the initial vote, which was conducted by SG Executive Vice President Richa Kaul because the current chair of the College Governments Presidents’ Council Felicity Chen  granted Kaul the authority to do so, said Judicial Commissioner Stephen Chang. Later on Saturday, the Judicial Commission ruled to disregard the results of the poll because not all voters were notified properly prior to the poll.

Chang also said at the same time, Chen had conducted a poll using qualtrics, a method later declared illegitimate by the Judicial Commission due to the potential of bias.

The Judicial Commission met Sunday and conducted an independent election by personally calling members of the College Governments Presidents’ Council to count their votes. In the second election, Golob defeated Kruger.

“We called the individual presidents on the phones to record their vote,” Chang said.  “I personally talked to the president to reduce any bias [and] stated all candidates possible for voting. The Judicial Commission recognizes our election to be the final and fair election.”

The Judicial Commission received an appeal from Kruger Sunday evening, claiming he lost to Golob because the election was conducted unfairly, Chang said. The commission determined there was inadequate evidence of tampering with elections or coercion, therefore Golob was announced the winner of the election.

“There were allegations with tampering,” the Judicial Commission said in a statement. “After investigating this case, we believe there is not enough evidence to suggest the fact of tampering with votes and coercion.”

Felicity Chen and SG Treasurer Fiona Chen  have both been accused of endorsing Golob’s Student Government campaign slate True BU behind the scenes.

“The College Governments Presidents’ Council is comprised of each president of the nine undergraduate colleges of BU,” Felicity Chen said. “They are the university’s best and brightest leaders who have been elected by their prospective colleges. As the current chairwoman of CGPC, it is extremely unlikely that the best and brightest of BU subvert to such claims.”

Golob said he looks forward to assuming the position of College Governments Presidents’ Council chair and commended the Judicial Commission for handling the recall election and appeal professionally and efficiently.

“I don’t think there was much of a controversy to begin with,” Golob said. “We went through all the procedures that Judicial laid out, and I think it was seamless in terms of due process.”

Kruger said the results of the initial election should still stand.

“Enough presidents voted for a majority to elect their leader,” Kruger said. “The judicial commissioners publicly declared a winner. These votes were collected before all the drama took root, and there are no specific requirements on election protocols because the current presidents’ chair has failed to write a constitution.”

It has also been rumored that there is still animosity between Kaul and Golob from the recent SG Executive Board election in which Kaul beat out Golob as next year’s Executive Student Body President. Kaul said this is not the case.

“The campaign is over,” she said.  “We have settled our differences, we are actually on good terms, and I will be welcoming him to the Executive Board if he is the new chair of College Governments Presidents’ Council, just as I would if anyone else won.”

Adrian Baker contributed to the reporting of this article.

 

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