BIG-C president banned from senior class board

Mike D'Esopo, treasurer of the senior class board, said Sunday night Sifontes was disqualified from the race because she was "mentioned in the DP during campaigning." Election rules state there is no appeals procedure "above the senior class board of 1991." Nevertheless, Sifontes said she plans to contact the Student Activities Council Steering Committee to file a grievance. The rules governing the election restrict candidates' exposure and publicity during the campaign. The Undergraduate Assembly had a similar "gag rule" until the Nominations and Elections Committee removed it in 1988. A few senior class board candidates, including Sifontes, said they were never fully informed of the rule. In addition, it is unclear if Sifontes was disqualified according to guidlelines established in the election code. D'Esopo admitted Sifontes might not have heard the prohibition explained at the introductory meetings, but added "I am sure it was said." Sifontes said yesterday she does not recall the senior class board warning the candidates they could not appear in the newspaper. Another candidate for senior board said she also does not recall the senior board specifically banning mention in the DP. Yet another candidate said she specifically remembered the board mentioning such a prohibition, and others do not remember if it was said or not. The election code for senior class board elections for the Class of 1992 does not specifically state a ban on appearing in the DP. The only time candidates are explicitly permitted to have their names and comments in the paper is in a prepared statement every candidate is entitled to. The code reads as follows: "No other printed publicity is permitted regarding your candidacy. A candidate is responsible for any press regarding his/her candidacy." According to D'Esopo, the senior class board interpreted the code as "not to allow any other press whatsoever." He said the board maintains this rule so no candidate could receive more publicity than others. The election code states any complaints regarding violations of the code must be submitted in writing by a member of the University community to the Office of Student Life Activities. Then the candidate "will be given the opportunity to appear before the Class of 1991 Board to present his/her case," the code reads. Sifontes was disqualified over the weekend, but Albert Moore, assistant director for Student Life Activities and Facilities and an advisor to the senior class board, said that no complaints were filed with OSLA as of the end of the last working day of last week. "As of five o'clock Friday afternoon, I have received absolutely no complaints or grievances from any one in the University community," Moore said. In addition, Sifontes may not have had sufficient opportunity to defend herself before board members took steps to strike her from the ballot. Sifontes said she received a message that D'Esopo had called her at 9:30 p.m. Sunday evening. The message said she could attend the senior class board meeting at 10 p.m. to decide her status in the election. When she arrived a half-hour into the meeting, Sifontes said, the board had already begun discussing the issue. When she began to tell her story, Sifontes said she was interrupted repeatedly. "I couldn't really express myself because in the beginning [of the proceedings], I was interrupted several times," said Sifontes."[It was] not an appeals procedure. They had a decision made in their minds." On Sunday afternoon, hours before the meeting on Sifontes' disqualification, Anouk Wasserman, Wharton representative to the senior class board and co-chair of the elections, came to the DP office to remove Sifontes' statement from the board's advertisement in Monday's paper, a DP office worker said. The election code states a candidate can only be disqualified after a senior board hearing about a written complaint. Sifontes said D'Esopo has not produced a copy of the written complaint to her. In addition, the board first said there was no grievance, then it was a "concern of the senior class board," then it was a written grievance, Sifontes said.

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