UCS recall: What you need to know

Simple majority to vote yes or no, result to come Wednesday evening

BY KATHY WANG UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

The recall election of undergraduate Council of Students President Ricky Zhong ’23 will begin at noon on Monday and close at noon on Wednesday, according to a Feb. 3 announcement from uCS.

The voting question will be: “Should Ricky Zhong be recalled from the office of UCS President?” Elections Co-Directors Eli Sporn ’24 and Joon Nam ’23 wrote in the announcement. Students will vote “yes” to approve the recall — in which case Zhong will be removed from office — and “no” to disapprove it. All active undergraduate students can participate in the “simple majority” election, and at least 10% participation is required for the result to be valid, Sporn and Nam wrote.

The recall election result will be announced Wednesday night, Sporn said.

If Zhong is recalled, an “internal special election” — meaning only UCS members will vote — will fill the presidential vacancy “due to the immediacy of the (Student Government Association) Spring Election timeline and historic precedent for filling student government officer vacancies,” according to the announcement.

Christopher Vanderpool ’24, author of the recall petition, said that he thinks the recall election is “a little rushed,” referring to the “really quick turnaround” between the Friday, Feb. 3 announcement and the Monday, Feb. 6 election.

“A few more days would have … helped students to get the word around campus because over the weekend I don’t know how much people are interacting and speaking with each other” about uCS politics, Vanderpool added.

“I believe that most if not all of us on uCS understood that the claims in the petition are false and made in bad faith, but we wanted to make sure students felt heard and respected in this matter using their own voice,” Zhong wrote in a statement he shared on Instagram Jan. 31.

“There were a lot of harmful exchanges going on. We wanted to (make the election happen) as soon as possible,” said Nam. He added that asking a yes-or-no question for the recall, rather than voting for specific candidates, is in line with the UCS Code of Operations.

The Student Activities Office offered the UCS Elections Co-Directors recommendations for the recall election procedures, according to Sporn. “We wanted to make sure that (the guidelines weren’t) solely coming from inside uCS,” he said.

The petition to recall Zhong was first circulated in September, initially met its signature requirements in November and received final approval on Jan. 30, The Herald previously reported.

If the recall passes, all undergraduate students — including seniors — will be eligible to apply for the open position to serve as uCS president until the end of the current semester, Nam said.

Vanderpool said that he believes holding an internal election to fill the presidential vacancy would be “unconstitutional” and “really unfair to the student body.”

Although holding an internal election is not specified in the Code of Operations, Nam stated that uCS wanted to be “consistent with what (they’ve) done for other vacancies in UCS e-board” — such as the internal election to fill the Undergraduate Finance Board vice chair in 2021.

“As it is a special election, we do have the flexibility to determine what that looks like. And that’s how we’ve interpreted” it, Nam added.

SEE RECALL PAGE 2

It’s ‘over the top’: Students talk recall

Community discusses justification for recall, disinterest in proceedings

BY INDIGO MUDBHARY SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Jung Haye To ’24, outreach director of u CS, first heard about efforts to recall u CS President Ricky Zhong ’23, a motion that the u ndergraduate Council of Students approved last Monday, halfway through fall semester.

The recall election — which will ask students “Should Ricky Zhong be recalled from the office of u CS President?” — will begin at noon Monday and close after 48 hours. Results will be announced Wednesday night.

To views misinformation as one of the biggest challenges facing the recall election, adding that u CS will try to make sure the upcoming election is “free, fair and based on legitimate and true information.”

Debating recall legitimacy, motivations

To will vote to keep Zhong in office in the upcoming election, citing u CS’s efforts to instate free laundry for the rest of the spring semester, a new mailroom queue monitor and the Nelson Fitness Center’s online occupancy tracker as “really important” u CS initiatives started under Zhong’s tenure.

“I’ve never seen the effects of u CS’s changes as much as I do now,” To said. “People have been wanting and needing (these changes) for years now.”

To is also skeptical that recall efforts were motivated by “genuine concern for the Brown community.” Christopher Vanderpool ’24, who organized the recall petition, alleged in the petition that the u CS secretary was neglecting her duties to record “vote tallies on the acceptance of u CS Resolutions, Statements or changes to the u CS Code” on the u CS website, which To does not believe directly applies to the president’s work.

“No matter who ends up contributing or providing a certain responsibility, … as President it’s your responsibility to ensure that your members are upholding the values of your organization and fulfilling the duties and responsibilities of their role,” Vanderpool said.

To added that there are ways other than a recall petition for community members to give feedback to u CS. Students can attend town halls, visit To’s outreach hours and contact Zhong directly.

Vanderpool said he was in contact with both Zhong and u CS Vice President Mina Sarmas ’24 early fall semester regarding his concerns, but that he felt these conversations were “very unproductive.” He added that he chose not to approach other members of the executive board because he felt unwelcomed by the organization.

According to To, u CS ultimately chose to move forward with the recall election to ensure the council does not set a precedent to use its “power (to) dismantle any recall” that students may bring in the future.

‘It’s not that deep,’ students say

Ruth Engelman ’25 heard about the recall election through social media and described the proceedings as “blown out of proportion.”

Though Engelman does not usually follow u CS politics, she feels that the criticism both Zhong and Vanderpool have received over the past several weeks is “over the top for a student government election.”

“It doesn’t matter very much to me honestly,” Engelman

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But Vanderpool said that special elections are considered so “not because there’s a different body of people voting (or) a different elector, but because they’re (just) happening at times outside of regularly scheduled elections.”

Nam recommended that students “do a lot of research (and) make sure you see both sides so that you’re informed for the actual vote.”

Sporn also said that the Elec - said, adding that she does not plan to vote in the recall election

When Catherine Paik ’25 first got news of the recall election, she assumed “something really bad (had) happened” because she had never heard of a recall happening in student government before.

Paik said she intends to further research the context behind the recall before voting.

Leanna Bai ’25 found out about Vanderpool’s recall efforts through various emails, social media postings

University News

tions Committee — which consists of members from u CS, u FB and the Class Coordinating Board — is currently working on a uniform elections code for the three branches of student government.

“The general Code of Operations for all three branches in terms of elections (is) both disjoint and convoluted,” he said.

Sporn added that the Student Government Association now refers to all members of u CS, u FB and CCB and friends who are involved in student government, but said she thinks “it’s not that deep.” instead of just the leadership of the three branches. Members of the Elections Committee will present the new elections code — which is expected to be finished in two to three weeks, according to Sporn — to their respective branches, and all three branches will have to approve it, Nam said.

“It’s a student government, not the President of the u nited States,” Bai added. Student government needs to have a more significant “presence in our Brown community for people to care about who” the president is.

Bai, who found the comments section of Zhong’s recent Instagram statement regarding the recall “surprisingly inflammatory,” said that she feels “like an outsider” in the recall proceedings.

Information sessions for the SGA Spring Elections will be held on Mar. 1 and Mar. 3, according to the announcement establishing the recall election’s rules.

Bai added that she would rather not have a recall because she is “tired of constantly voting for another president.” Zhong was elected in a runoff election last spring after filing an appeal arguing that the original election procedures violated Article VIII of the u CS constitution, The Herald previously reported.

Ronald Yuan ’23.5 said he learned about the recall through friends and from various “signage and slips of paper strewn about” the Stephen Robert ‘62 Campus Center.

“It felt kind of out of left field to me,” Yuan said. But “I hope there’s some good discussion that is generated from this.”