On Friday March 30th, Student Government Presidency and Vice Presidency candidates Matthew Rutkovitz and McKay Ellis met with the Judicial Advisory Board to appeal the decisions made in Thursday’s meeting. In the meeting on Thursday, Rutkovitz and Ellis were disqualified from the race for violations of the Election Guidelines in the Student Government bylaws which states ‘Candidates must not act in such a manner that it places a voter under duress with regard to their vote’ and ‘Candidates should campaign positively. Candidates are representing The University of Tampa.’”
It was also decided in the meeting for all votes that had been cast on Blackboard up until
that point would be null and void and a re-vote was scheduled. This decision has been revoked, and Rutkovitz and Ellis were reinstated as candidates.
According to the Student Government website the decision was re based off of the rationale that “there was no evidence of duress placed upon a student in the voting process,” and that “there was no evidence of negative campaigning by Matthew Rutkovitz and Alison ‘McKay’ Ellis.”
As for the decision to revoke the re-vote, the Board stated on the rationale that “since no candidates are disqualified from the election, the appeals committee thought that it was in the best interest of The University of Tampa Student Government to continue with the current election,” and “the well-being of candidates was taken into consideration. A re-vote might have required them to focus their attention on the elections for one more week, rather than class assignments and other responsibilities.”
When asked about his reinstated candidacy, Rutkovitz spoke on Ellis and his own behalf.
“We appealed the Judicial Advisory Board’s decision regarding illegal campaigning and a re-vote for next week. We cannot go into detail of the accusations against us until the campaign is over. However, both appeals were overturned and we are pleased with the outcome. Together, we have great passion and leadership goals for SG and hopefully we can change this school for the better. Honesty is important and blackboard is still live until tomorrow evening.”
All votes that have been cast will still be counted and Blackboard will remain open until Sunday evening at 11:59 p.m.
Chelsea Daubar can be reached at minaret.news@gmail.com.