Volume 20, Issue 26 - April 10, 1998

Page 1

Volume20

Issue 26

April 10, 1998

The Metropolitan State College of Denver student newspaper serving the Auraria Campus since 1979

\ 'I

10\,{,,/

I

Auraria plans to increase parking rates

~-'*

. """ ;;xy" /

j•

News

\..

1-t. '

AURARIA

;/

Page3

I

Commentary Perry Swanson/The Metmpo/i1a11 WRITES: Janet Damon, SGA vice president of Diversity, protests Erica Tapia"s exclusion from SGA elections April 7.

Studrnt demanding to be a write-in candidate should have met deadline

Protest slams elections By Perry Swanson 11ie Metropolitan

·7

A protest at Student Government Assembly elections this week focused attention on Metro's democratic process, or a perceived lack thereof. The election ended April 8; results will be announced April 13. Erica Tapia, a 20-year-old Metro stu· dent, said she was left out of the election process because the student Election Commission wouldn't approve her request to join the presidential race. She made her request mor~ than a month after the deadline to register and only two days before voting started. Tapia stood outside the library, and then by the flagpole in the middle of campus, encouraging students to write her name on the ballot. Election Commission chairwoman Kerrie Dallman said write-in votes for Tapia wouldn't be counted. Since Tapia didn't register as a candidate by the March 4 deadline, and she didn't attend the candidate meetings, Dallman -said the commission decided she couldn't be allowed into the race. Tapia filed a complaint with the student Judicial Board on April 8, asking for a reversal of the commission decision preventing her from running as a write-in can-

didate.

Judicial Board Chief Justice Krystal Bigley said the board would consider Tapia's complaint along with a written statement from the Election Commission and decide whether to hold a hearing to decide the matter. Tapia said she didn't think much about running for student office until reading a column by presidential candidate Dave Flomberg in the March 27 edition of The

Metropolitan. In the column, Flomberg, a copy editor/columnist for The Metropolitan, said he joim;d the race on a dare, and originally intended to relinquish the office if he won. "So vote for me or don't vote for me, I don't give a damn," Flomberg wrote. Flomberg's competition was Andy Nicholas, who campaigned with a group of candidates called the Student Power Initiative. "Once Dave wrote what he wrote, Andy was the only candidate left," Tapia said. And that meant students had no real choice in the presidential election, she said. The Election Commission said as long as Flomberg was still officially in the race, he was a viable candidate. The protest took many student eyes off basic campaign issues such as parking and using pluses/minuses in grading. Instead, debate at the flagpole, where Tapia and about 15 supporters made their stand April 7, centered on whether she should be

allowed into the race. A women's studies professor, Xetura Woodley-Tillman, showed up with several students to protest Tapia's exclusion. "They've been trying to silence Erica since this whole thing started," she said. One current student government member spoke to the gathering, saying Tapia should be allowed to run. "Students should be able to decide whomever they want to vote for," said Janet Damon, assembly vice president . of Diversity. Damon, who made a run to retake the Diversity office with the SPI ticket, said her support for Tapia was not a stab at Nicholas. Still, Damon expressed discomfort with Nicholas as a possible student government president, especially because she joined the ticket when the current president, Karmin Trujillo, was still in the race. 'Tm not sure how much of his passions are earnest and how much of his passions are a thing of political ambition," Damon said. Trujillo dropped out of the race in February and asked Nicholas to run for president. Jessie Bullock, assembly vice president of Student Fees, said she would introduce a resolution at the group's meeting April 9 asking the Election Commission to count votes for write-in candidates.

Page 12 -

Features Tribute to Elvis a sexy throw back to the 50s Pages

Sports Baseball team tied for first place in RMAC Page 15

Travis Betz

Quotable "I'm not a drug addict, I just love marijuana."

Got something to say? E-mail the editor at bedan@'mscd.edu or call 556-8353. Visit our Web site at www.mscd.edu/- themet

- Kannln Trujillo 1997-98 SGA president


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.