Dishonesty in SGA election hurts reputation and trust
COMMENTARY

Emily Baker is a senior news-editorial journalism major from Midland.

SIck. Last week saw one slimy Student Government Association election. The election was so unappealing: One candidate was temporarily kicked off the ticket, three people got fines and the student body had to re-vote for the president.

Here is an example: Presidential candidate Blake Eason was booted out of the election for strolling around residence halls without permission in order to campaign. He told the Skiff he didn’t realize he was violating election rules. Maybe so, but this is his third violation. He got in trouble for announcing his run for the election early and for putting up campaign signs before it was allowed.

Ignorance of the law is not a good defense.

Here’s some more bad campaigning: Sebastian Moleski, vice president-elect of Programming Council, used $100 of the Programming Council’s money to buy donuts to hand out to potential voters.

The money was left over from a promotional campaign. It was not part of a “buy donuts for voters” fund. Sounds to me like a case of misappropriation of funds, at the least.

Let’s all hope his punishment of having to repay a third of the cost of the donuts will keep him from using PC money for non-PC purposes again.

TCU is a great place with friendly people and a serene ambiance. And then this election volcano erupts. SGA is supposed to represent the students and our needs. It is supposed to act as a voice for its representatives. We, the represented, aren’t slimy, so why do some of them act like they are?

Students need SGA to bring in entertainment, to keep the campus feeling like a family, to help student groups pay for trips and other events and to keep the legislation of campus rolling. We need representatives who care about us and who aren’t just interested in fluffing up their résumés.

And most importantly, we need to be able to trust SGA. I don’t see how anyone can expect us to trust SGA completely — especially when it gets a nice chunk of our tuition payments — after what happened with this election.

And unfortunately, the honest candidates must suffer the consequences caused by their inconsiderate counterparts. The credibility of all of SGA has been damaged, and for the sake of the honest candidates, I hope it doesn’t take too long to rebuild the trust that has been lost.