As the President and Speaker of the Denison Campus Governance Association (DCGA), we, Ana Morales and Meghan Pearce, would like to address the editorial published in the September 24, 2013 issue of The Denisonian, “A vote against insensitivity.”
The DCGA holds student elections to the highest standards. Occasionally, candidates use tactics that are not consistent with the DCGA Election Procedures and Rules, the DCGA governing documents, or University Policies.
In these situations, the Elections Board of the DCGA is well equipped and backed by these policies to address and prevent the use of inappropriate material or campaign tactics. Such is the case with the Class of 2017 elections for the 2013-2014 academic year.
Upon being notified of their campaign materials, the four candidates mentioned in last week’s paper were first instructed to remove their campaign materials from any place of existence on campus, which they immediately and respectfully did.
Directly following, all four candidates met with the DCGA President, Ana Morales, ’14, to discuss the implications of breaking the expectations and rules of DCGA elections and as well as future action resulting from the content of their materials. The DCGA Elections Board, Executive Committee (which consists of the DCGA President, Vice President, Speaker, Treasurer, and Chairs of the DCGA Finance, Policy, Rules, and Public Relations Committees), and the DCGA Advisors, Dean Bill Fox and Professor Michael Brady were all notified of this situation.
Our purpose and hope in addressing this article is two fold; first, is being transparent with our student body who understands that the Denison Campus Governance Association has considerable measures in place to prevent any potentially hazardous campaigning in any election.
Second, that the candidates, while exhibiting inappropriate behavior in this election, are protected by the policies of the DCGA.
Meaning, although action steps are taken to condone inappropriate campaign behavior, they are also taken to equip candidates with knowledge to refrain from such actions in the future and with tools and support from their student body representatives to move forward.
The DCGA promotes the educational value of student elections and strives to represent the student opinion through clear communication and understanding.
Sincerely,
President Ana Morales ‘14
Speaker Meghan Pearce ‘16