Drive defends its controversial campaign tactic, and One follows suit
A general student e-memo authored by the Drive ticket and sent out on Wednesday is being met with contention from the other UCSU election tickets and raising questions about the proper distribution of e-memos to students.
Titled “URGENT: Vote DRIVE for UCSU,” the message’s content provides information about the Drive ticket’s campaign and supplies a link to the UCSU election page, where students have until Friday to vote. It urges students to vote for the Drive ticket and “help make CU history today.”
Members of both the One and Solidarity tickets responded by saying they did not know that creating a general student e-memo in support of their campaign was an option being offered to the tickets.
“We weren’t under the impression that sending an e-mail to the entire student body was something that candidates could use as a means to gain support,” said Sarah Martinez, a sophomore studio arts major running for Tri-executive with the One ticket.
However, the One ticket did respond with its own e-memo titled, “Vote for the One Ticket,” which went out Thursday morning.
Michael Mazzone, a sophomore open-option major running for Tri-executive with Solidarity, said he was not sure how a UCSU candidate would be able to make an e-memo like this without an inside connection.
“We’re definitely surprised,” he said. “I don’t believe it’s in the power of any UCSU candidate to do that sort of thing.”
According to the university’s student e-memo policy, “The Office of the Registrar is responsible for the processing of requests for student e-memos for the purpose of conducting university business.”
In response to the objections that were made, both One and Solidarity will be allowed to counter with their own e-memos, in the interest of balance.
Barbara Todd, registrar for CU, said this would be a one-time exception to the normal rules and procedures that go into requesting a student e-memo.
“I think, in looking back, we should not have sent out that e-memo,” Todd said. “We will add it to our policy in the future that we will not take part in any student campaigning.”
Todd said Drive had not done anything inappropriate in using the e-memo service with their campaign. She said that, normally, the student e-memo service is intended to spread word on educational items, such as advising dates and academic deadlines.
“Anything that takes away from the educational e-memos being read is a problem,” Todd said.
It says in the university’s student e-memo policy that requests will be accepted from university departments and registered student groups. Candidates from the Drive ticket defended its use of the student e-memo service, saying that the student group Go, which advocates for student voice on campus and has volunteers who support Drive’s cause, sponsored their message without using student fees.
“I think that we used legitimate university resources,” said Ryan Biehle, a senior political science major running for Tri-executive with Drive. “I think it just plays to our strengths as a more experienced ticket.”
Dustin Farivar, a junior political science and sociology major also running for Tri-executive with Drive, said the e-memo option was always open to One and Solidarity, had they sought to use it.
“Each student has equal opportunity, it’s just whether you choose to access it,” he said.
UCSU election commissioner Sean Daly also said there was nothing in the election code against using the student e-memo service, so long as student fees were not being used to pay for anything on the campaign trail.
“We can’t imagine having to include all state and university and federal law in our code,” Daly said. “State, university and federal law are enforced by state, university and federal authorities.”
Daly also said there are no election infractions he can issue to Drive in this case.
After seeing the e-memo for the first time, Martinez said the One ticket approached Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Ron Stump, who agreed that it would only be fair for the other tickets to be afforded a school-wide e-mail as well.
“The biggest thing is that we took care of it and that we had immediate administration support to do that,” Martinez said.
Mazzone said Solidarity was only given more incentive to focus on their campaigning, and trying to get the vote from students.
“We’re taking matters into our own hands,” he said.
Dan Omasta, a junior political science major running for Representative-at-large with the Drive ticket, said he didn’t think it was fair that the other tickets were being given the chance to release their own student e-memos without having to go through the same process. He said e-memos were a way of communicating to students they hadn’t realized.
“Really, the fact that (the Student Organizations Finance Office) approved the invoice, and the fact that the registrar approved the e-memo signals that we were in accordance with university policy,” Omasta said.
In the meantime, Martinez said the One ticket is happy where its campaign is, and is moving on with only two days left in the election.
“We’re just focusing on the positive things we can do while campaigning and making sure we take care of unexpected issues that arise, such as campus-wide e-mail,” she said.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer George Plaven at george.plaven@colorado.edu.
