Wilf Campus Undergraduate Student Government Election Results; Student Court To Rule on Eligibility of 2 Candidates
Wilf student council elections were held on Oct.17 for the positions of YSU Junior, Sophomore and Freshman Representatives, as well as YCSA Treasurer. On Oct. 18, SOY elections were held for the positions of SOY BMP Vice President and SOY IBC Vice President. These are the results of each election:
YSU Junior Representative: Elliot Dosetareh
YSU Sophomore Representative: Zachary Greenberg
YSU Freshman Representative: Michael Stark
SOY BMP Vice President: David Nissanoff
SOY IBC Vice President: Eli Weiss
Regarding the election for YSCA Treasurer, it was deemed that the two potential candidates running for Treasurer were constitutionally ineligible for the position. According to Daniel Ritholtz, Canvassing Committee Chair, “one of the candidates was deemed ineligible because he was a sophomore running for a position that can only be held by a junior or senior, while the other candidate was running for a position in Yeshiva College, while he is enrolled in Sy Syms School of Business.” Both of these ineligibilities can be found in Article II, Section V, Sub-Section 7 of the Wilf Campus Constitution. The Office of Student Life, which provides the list of approved candidates and then sends them to the Canvassing Committee, committed the oversight.
Additionally, SOY elections are usually held on the same day as YSU elections, but this year they were held a day after, causing some additional confusion.
In order to decide how to best approach both situations, the student government general assembly met on Tuesday, Oct. 23 to select members to a student court. They selected Dovid Schwartz as chief justice, and Benjamin Atwood, Samuel Gelman, Benjamin Strachman, and Daniel Yellin as justices.
In an email sent to the student body on Thursday, Oct. 25, the justices explained that YSU and YCSA “submitted a petition against the Wilf Campus Canvassing Committee in regards to a dispute over the recent election for the position of YCSA Secretary/Treasurer.” The email stated that YSU and YCSA request that the disputed candidate is removed from his position and instruct the “Canvassing Committee to hold a special election for the position so that eligible students might run for the position.”
After deliberation, the court has agreed to hear the case of YSU v. Canvassing Committee but will not be holding a public trial. Instead the court “will be releasing a summary judgment on the matter” within “[c]onstitutionally mandated 15-day period for hearing and releasing an opinion on a case heard.”
The last student council hearing on May 10, 2017, Rubinstein vs. Canvassing Committee, ruled in favor of David Rubinstein, who requested that student council election results from April be released by the Office of Student Life and Canvassing Committee after the student body voted on an amendment during those April elections to release election results.
The Office of Student Life declined to comment.
Below is the official statement of YSU President Nolan Edmonson, SYMS President Brandon Emalfarb, SOY President Moshe Spirn, YCSA President Amitai Miller, and Canvassing Committee Chair Daniel Ritholtz:
Joint statement from the Student Council and the Canvassing Committee. For immediate release:
In this fall’s election cycle, there were a number of issues with the candidate approval process and the voting ballot process. Those issues included the approval of two candidates to run for YCSA Treasurer who were not eligible to run for that position and SOY elections being held on the day after the election of YSU/YCSA positions, when traditionally they have been held on the same day.
These issues were indeed oversights by the Office of Student Life, the Canvassing Committee and student councils, and we are pursuing a course of action to rectify this issue. Pursuant with Article XI of the Wilf Campus Constitution, the General Assembly will convene no later than next Tuesday to appoint members to the Student Court. After this, the Court will enact its power (as outlined in Article II, Section X, Subsection 5 of the Wilf Campus Constitution) to remove any “ineligible” student leaders from office.
If the Student Court sees fit, the Canvassing Committee will hold new elections and allow students who so please to run for open positions.
The students who were voted for but otherwise ineligible to hold their elected positions have been informed by the Canvassing Committee.
We apologize to the candidates whom this oversight has impacted and to the wider student body. The student councils and Canvassing Committee are taking steps to prevent similar issues from happening in future elections.
Respectfully,
Nolan Edmonson, YSU President
Brandon Emalfarb, SYMS President
Moshe Spirn, SOY President
Amitai Miller, YCSA President
Daniel Ritholtz, Canvassing Committee Chair
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This article has been updated since its original posting.
