Newsom's decision forces debate over student government procedures

Randy Newsom's decision to rescind his nomination to run for Tufts Community Union (TCU) President ignited a controversy over how student government could apply its rules to a situation not accounted for in the constitution. Attempts by members of student government to determine what course of action would be in students' "best interest" upset others who feel student government should not presume that it can make such a determination.

In an election where the candidates spoke about many of the same issues, one area of disagreement was how student government should respond to situations where there are no clear rules. Chike Aguh feels that student government can bend or change rules if they are not adequate for dealing with a situation.

"Students' welfare supercedes the constitution. That's why we had reform this semester," Aguh said. "When the rules and the students welfare go up against each other, the rules have to change."

This mindset is similar to that of the TCU Judiciary (TCUJ) when it ruled that the Senate had to redo half of its nominations meeting after a complaint that the nomination of Aguh was not fair. Despite the fact that Mead and Aguh were nominated on the same ballot and there is no precedent for ignoring only half a motion, the TCUJ found that the literal aspects of the situation could be ignored in favor of an approach that upheld the "spirit of the constitution."

Mead, however, disagreed with this approach because it relies too much on personal interpretation of what is appropriate in a given situation.

"Doing what's written in the constitution is what's in the best interest for the student," he said. "There are arguments all of the time about what is best for the students. That's why we have guidelines."

While some in Senate criticized ELBO for holding new nominations following Newsom's resignation, members of ELBO say that there is nothing they could have done differently, given the unprecedented character of the situation.

"We were never the cause of anything. We were reacting to what was given to us, and I think we acted with integrity and decisiveness," ELBO public relations chair Vinda Rao said.

Now that they have had time to reevaluate the situation, some student government leaders say that controversy was unavoidable once Newsom decided to rescind his nomination. The only way the situation could have been avoided would have been for Newsom to inform the entire Senate at the same time of his decision to rescind his nomination. Because he waited to inform the Senate, a complaint was filed and the TCUJ ruled that the second nominations meeting had to be redone. Such events could have been avoided with earlier notice, leaders said.

When Newsom decided to drop out, if ELBO had decided to let the election be uncontested, there likely would have been complaints filed about that decision as well, said former Senate Historian Alison Clarke.

"ELBO has to ensure fair elections. That in a lot of people's minds wouldn't have been fair," she said. "There obviously were people who would have run if Randy wasn't running, as we saw."

Even though members of student government have spent much of the last ten days arguing over this issue, history shows that the controversy is likely to fade as quickly as it began. Two years ago, when complaints about voter fraud marred the election of Eric Greenberg as TCU President, students had largely forgotten about the controversy by the time they returned to school in September. Aguh also hopes that outreach efforts to incoming freshmen can help them.

Student Activities Director Jodie Nealley, who serves as the advisor to TCU government, agreed that previous controversies quickly fall out of students' memories.

"In any organization, a situation like this makes them stronger, because it makes them examine and actually read their rules. It's the challenges to organizations that really make them grow," she said.

Aguh remains concerned that the controversy reinforced students' negative stereotypes of Senate.

"The only way we can get over this is for the Senate to do its work," he said. "We have to work to get their faith back."

Nealley says the discussion among the Senate, TCUJ, and ELBO last weekend was actually a demonstration of the student government system working. People voiced opinions, came together to make decisions, and went to the proper bodies to appeal those decisions until a correct course of action could be decided on.

"That's what those bodies are there for. As an advisor, I think it's working, and people are working it out," she said.