A candidate in last Monday's elections for Leonard Carmichael Society President is filing a complaint alleging the elections were carried out against the group's constitution.
Junior Irit Lockhart was defeated in the elections, and she expects to file her grievance with the Tufts Community Union Judiciary (TCUJ) on Friday.
Juniors Garen Nigon and Arielle Traub were elected co-presidents. Sophomore Kim Petko was the fourth candidate for the two president positions for the 2006 calendar year.
Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS) is the umbrella organization for most community service groups on campus. LCS is governed by a 12-member directional staff, which oversees the 85 members of the programming staff who run the group's 40 programs.
According to the LCS constitution - last revised in 2003 - the directional staff has the largest say in determining the group's presidents. "The President, Vice-President, and Treasurer of LCS shall be selected in the form of a proposed slate by the D-Staff, ratified by a margin of two-thirds of P-Staff," Article II, Section 3 of the constitution reads.
According to Lockhart, though, the procedures were not followed.
In late October current LCS Co-Presidents Erin Poth and Mari Pullen, both seniors, sent an e-mail to the group's members to ask for applications for president.
The next e-mail, sent Nov. 7, was sent to programming staff members. "As these two individuals will be your LCS leaders for the next year, it is very important that you take part in this process. If you are interested in coming to the meeting (which you all should come to!) please let me know by THIS FRIDAY so I can email you out the applications," the e-mail read.
The final e-mail, sent Nov. 13, the day before elections, explicitly told programming staff members they could vote. "We would really like all of you to come and elect the new LCS learders! [sic] Attached to this email are the applications for your review," the e-mail read.
Poth declined repeated requests to comment on the election. She said the group's leaders were discussing how to handle the situation. Nigon and directional staff member Ami Patel, a senior, also declined to comment.
Lockhart said in past years the directional staff decided the two presidents. She participated in the election of Poth and Pullen, when there was a third applicant. The previous year, Andrea Daley and Emily Cerveira ran unopposed.
"The programming staffers are very much removed," Lockhart said. "The D-staff have the knowledge base [to determine the president.]"
In the past, she said, presidential candidates' applications were only sent to members of the directional staff, but this year the programming staff received them, as well.
The application for president is not clear about who will see the information. "This application is your one and only opportunity to tell the staff members of LCS your views, your thoughts and your suggestions about our GREAT organization including what LCS means to you, what ideas you have for the future and why you want to serve as LCS's elected leader," the application reads.
Lockhart said she assumed that by "staff," the application meant the directional staff.
At Monday's election, there was about an hour of discussion on the candidates before the vote. According to Lockhart, 17 people voted, only about half of whom were members of the directional board. Candidates are not allowed to vote.
"This is the first year they threw it open," Lockhart said of Poth and Pullen. "They did it after applications were submitted and they did it without any consultation with the directional board."
The results were announced immediately. After the election, Lockhart said she went home and told the group's leaders she was considering resigning her position on the directional board.
Lockhart is also the program coordinator for ESL and Adult Literacy. Freshman Rebecca Dunlevy had already been appointed to take over this program next semester.
When Lockhart found the group's constitution online, though, she changed her mind. In an AOL Instant Messenger conversation, Lockhart told Poth about the constitutional procedures for elections. "I said, 'You really should have looked at this,'" Lockhart said.
She then sent an e-mail to the seniors on the directional board saying she would not be resigning. She is considering making ESL at Tufts - a subgroup of her LCS program that teaches English to OneSource workers - into its own group, not affiliated with LCS, to be able to perform advocacy functions.
Lockhart's complaint to the TCUJ will include several issues with the LCS constitution, most notably the section on presidential elections.
It will charge Poth and Pullen with violating the constitution's election procedures and changing those procedures without going through the required two-thirds vote by the directional and programming staffs.
Daley (LA '05), the 2004 LCS President, said the constitutional procedures were applied in past years, for the most part. "P-staff has been allowed to participate," she said. "P-staff was invited, but they were asked to leave when the final vote took place."
Lockhart's complaint will also include the constitution's requirement of regular directional board meetings. "Meetings will be held bimonthly, on alternating weeks during the academic year, for both Directional and Programming Staff," Article III of the constitution reads.
Poth and Pullen have held only one directional staff meeting this semester, Lockhart said.
The complaint will first go to the Dean of Students Office, but because it has to do with the constitution of a student group, it will then be referred to the TCUJ. After the complaint is filed, the responding party will have the opportunity to submit its case, TCUJ Advocacy Chair Jamie Morgan, a sophomore, said.
The TCUJ will then hold a hearing, and the seven TCUJ members will determine the constitutionality of the group's actions. Either party will be able to appeal the TCUJ's ruling to the Committee on Student Life.
Neither Morgan nor TCUJ Chair Alex Clark, a sophomore, had seen Lockhart's complaint in advance, but they spoke in general about TCUJ procedures.
"We will hear the complaint. We will rule on the constitutionality of the issue. We will determine any of the appropriate consequences, including but not limited to the overturning of the election," Clark said.
If the TCUJ decides the constitution was violated and another LCS presidential election is required, Lockhart said she would not run again. "I will take myself out of the election," she said.
Her motivation in filing the complaint is not to become the group's president. "I'm much more concerned with the constitutional and procedural issues," she said. "That's what gives us the right to use the close to $100,000."
The fiscal year 2005 budget for LCS lists the group's total expected expenses at $80,980.20 and its income at $25,200, for a net amount of $55,780.20. LCS gets the second most amount of money from the student activities fee. Concert Board gets the most, with $178,306 in expenses and $18,750 in income.
After the process is over, Lockhart said, she wants the group's decision-making process to be clear. "The reality is, we have no idea what the results would have been," she said of Monday's election. "But we should know."
