Collegiate Times

Notice those candidates who were affected aren't calling this suspicious? Rather Ryan Smith, who seems hell bent on making SGA look bad after SGA was cleared of the write in controversy. Get a life, man.

Ever think that Ryan Smith is doing his job? After all, he is the Undergraduate Rep to the BOV, he kind of represents all students to those that really make decisions about our University.

I once that that was a possibility, until I saw his pathetic attempts to condemn the SGA at this past CSA meeting. He is no longer the undergrad rep by the way, just a disgruntled guy who has nothing better to do then run to the CT and cry foul.

I've got to agree, 1:08. If going a few dollars overbudget cost the winning party the election, someone needs to say something. I don't care if it's Ryan or someone on one of the tickets or whoever.

If SGA had conducted elections and the process of issuing citations properly, these types of issues wouldn't have needed to be brought to the student body's attention. I applaud Ryan Smith for his investigation into SGA's recent actions that have seemed to seldom comply with their joke of a constitution and so-called bylaws. They've gone untouched for too long and it's about time that someone uncovered the truth behind the doings of their administration. THANK YOU RYAN SMITH!

Ryan Smith does not TRULY represent ANY student. The Undergraduate Rep to the BOV is appointed by the BOV. He represents what the BOV wants to hear from students. He is a joke and so is his position.

I find it hilarious that someone is calling the UG rep to the BOV a joke next to an article about SGA. The BOV actually vote on issues central to the university; what does SGA do, seriously? I'm not happy that they screwed the elections, but I'd be a lot more upset if SGA actually did anything.

Not included in this article: 1.The infraction was submitted by the Chief Justice, Aaron Bock. Confirmed in writing by Adam M. Kress. 2.According to the article, the infraction hearing was held on Apr 6th. However, no filing date is listed, because no written infraction was filed, in violation of the Judicial Branch Election Rules. 3.Voting for SGA completed on April 3rd. Results of the election were known to the Judicial branch when the hearing began. 4.The Election Rules state that the appeals committee shall consist of 5 people, one of which is the Chief Justice, and two of which are "members of the university" chosen by the Chief Justice. Thus the filer of the infraction effectively controlled the appeals committee as well. Little remedy was available to yourSGA. 5.According to the Election Rules, typical infractions result in a 5% deduction of votes. A 10% deduction is reserved for unusually severe infractions.

Fact Checker, Part Two: The facts listed in the previos post are true and confirmed. The following is analysis based on these facts. This infraction was raised after the deadline. It was filed in a hurry, and not in accordance with the Election Rules. It was filed after election results were known. It was filed by someone who effectively controls the appeals committee, making any decision final. And it just so happened to be deemed a major infraction by those who knew that the decision to make it so would alter the election results. The article notes Aaron's claim that the infraction was "in the works" for a while. Did it take "a while" for him to tell himself about the infraction, or was he searching for any possible infraction that could be used to alter the election results? The infraction was this: botched accounting by yourSGA that reported the cost of fliers at $18.60 below the actual cost. However, Judicial Branch claimed that fair market value for the fliers was actually much more than yourSGA spent, and that their failure to find as good a price at the local A1 Copies proved that an error of less than $20 was a blatant falsification of the budget.

sooo wait....400 votes deducted for going about 40 dollars over....what does that come out to? OHHH so that means the SGA thinks our votes were worth about 1 cent each.... niiice, really niiiice

This year has really shown the true color of SGA. So in one article I learn that there is a rule that allows for silly infractions that can be used to rig an election, and in the same article I found out my vote doesn't matter at all because it will just be swayed to the liking of the SGA. This is how they represent the students? "Well you can vote and we'll pretend like it matters but if the results don't appease us we will make something up to fix it." Correct me if I'm wrong but this election got rigged over $18? 10% of votes for $18? That is half a percent for each dollar or 22 votes per dollar. So 22 students votes don't matter for every dollar they went over? Seems like a fair voting system to listen to 90% of students votes.

Realize that that is 22 votes PER candidate too. So really is 88 votes per dollar.

if anyone hasnt seen yet, go to the Martin Luther section and read those 68 points... hahah this is hilarious. SGA is such a spineless organization

Great, and you're a member. Every undergrad is a member of SGA, whether you choose to do anything is your prerogative. Making you spineless as well. Congrats.

10:43 is more than likely referencing the SGA "leaders." You probably are one of those people since you cant really read and understand what people are saying. Also good job on not refuting their comment.

Some new information to consider: The print media for The Total Package also violated election rules, but were not penalized. They posted this media on classroom doors, as well as other areas in clear violation of state fire codes, yet they were not deducted any votes for this. Does that mean the violation of a STATE LAW is less severe than going over budget by POCKET CHANGE? I call for the immediate resignation of all of the total package candidates from this election.

Booyah!

Sam for President. Dan for Vice

IDK if we could win they might rig it and let people they can make into lap dogs win.

I applaud our outgoing SGA members, they have done a fantastic job this semester in destroying an organization that is built around representing the students of Virginia Tech. The corrupt and questionable actions of those in charge is a good indication of how they will act in future positions as they continue on after college. I pity anyone that puts these people into a position of power in the future as they have shown that they will abuse that power as they see fit.

I have to agree with Sam. If the new information is true, which I believe it to be, there should be an immediate STUDENT investigation into this election. I also believe that if the information that was presented in this CT article is true that the Total Package winners should step down. Show the students that you know what the right thing to do is and show them you recognize that the yourSGA representatives won the most votes. It really comes down to the fact that the SGA took away our votes. NO ONE has the right to take away your constitutional right to vote, period.

First off students should not be discussing Ryan Smith - they should be discussing the fact that the student body gov't officers in officers are NOT the ones the study body elected. That is what is the real injustice.

MORE NEW INFORMATION: Aaron Bock and Kendall LaRue are in the SAME FRATERNITY. Talk about a conflict of interest? You have the Chief Justice of SGA rigging an election so that his frat brother can hold office.

lets take up arms, and by arms I mean signs, an dgo stand outside the SGA office until they give us our right to have our vote count back!

Larry you have presented an interesting point... e-mail SGA68points@yahoo.com if you or anyone would like to vent even more and perhaps organize something.

@Sam 12:29pm Don't forget, this years SGA President, Adeel Khan is also in that fraternity, Delta Sigma Phi! And Aaron Bock was an associate justice during the election last year! Hmmm...

so you mean to tell me that Bock was a Justice and got Adeel in as President last year and this year got Kendall in as Treasurer. You also mean to tell me that all three people are frat brothers... HAHAHA Bock is unstoppable, next thing you know he's going to declare Delta Sigma Phi is going to live in The Grove, where President Steger lives (pst. Steger is an actual President...not like SGA where its just friends appointing friends)... wow this is screwed up

The problem is not aaron bock who did a good job with elections this year, or even ryan smith, who just wants to see SGA go down in flames. The real problem is that the four officers that won the student body vote are NOT in office. This is the real problem with this year's election!

The main problem here leads back to the chief and associate justices. It is not the actual people who are the problem, but the position that they hold. The purpose of the Judicial Branch of the SGA is to balance out the power of the Executive and Legislative Branches. The problem here lies in the election process of the judicial positions. Justices are elected by the members of the Executive and Legislative Branches (President, VP, Secretary, Treasurer, and Speaker of House). Justices are not picked directly by students, but instead are picked by representatives of students who they are supposed to balance out! In reality, the balance of power in the SGA is a figment of our imaginations and Justices should be picked directly by students, since students are the people that justices must answer to when writing the constitution. The Executive party of last year was able to pick who they wanted as justices which in turn allows dictation by one super side which in turn ruining the balance of power. It would be in the best interest of students to make sure this problem does not happen again next year. Students need to elect a Judicial Branch. The Student Government is what represents interests of students; it should not be a clique of the same 50 individuals. This issue of elections is in the past, students now need to look at the future and make sure their best interests are the top priority of SGA.

Complain complain complain. The SGA does its best to serve you - help us, don't destroy us. You are all members of the Student Government, whether you like it or not.

Let me give everyone a little run down of the situation. This year, in a change to the elections rules, we implemented a vote penalty for infractions instead of just a fine. Here is the simple reasoning behind that: Does it make sense to simply fine someone money for breaking a rule when the breaking of the rule could have a huge impact on votes? Especially (and this year was a great example) when that rule being broken is a budget violation? Do you think a ticket that chooses to violate a budget rule (or any other rule) is going to care about paying another $25 as long as they win? No, but when the penalty is votes taken away, suddenly the rules mean something and you have a more legitimate election. Secondly, contrary to popular belief, I dont give out the sanctions. A committee does (note the word committee). A committee of unbiased undergraduate students, none of which were Delta Sigma Phi brothers, gave them their sanction based on the evidence presented and the case made by the accused party. A Major Infraction is defined as "an infraction that either blatantly violates the Elections Rules OR is thought to have major affect on voting." The committee felt that both were true (blatant and largely affecting votes). Lastly, the infraction was turned in properly. April 6 was simply the date at which a hearing time was finalized. We had several hearings this semester which required multiple hearing times.

As for Anonymous's comment (3:37), I completely agree with the Justice position. In a meeting last week with my Adviser, I proposed exactly what you said, that the position of Chief Justice be an elected position, same as the President, VP, Treasurer, and Secretary. SGA is indeed controlled by 50 or so individuals. Its the 50 or so individuals those that active seek and continued to hold their positions. The positions are open to all students, and I assure you that they are absolutely attainable. They do, however, required an extensive amount of time, so I think they deserve everyones respect. If you want to make a change, the Collegiate Times, Ryan Smith, and Billy Brubaker are the wrong ways to do so. Join SGA.

Adam I want your answer to these questions. First, your desire is to represent the students and the student body is part of SGA because they can voice their opinion right? Well how can you justify taking that voice away? You think an election that has the voice of the students taken away is legitamite? Are you kidding me? You are seriously sitting here saying you represent a student body even though you won't let their votes count for anything? As for the post from you all...I did voice my opinion when I voted, but apparently my voice can be zipped up by the SGA if the CANDIDATES screw up. It boggles my mind that you defend taking away students voices. BOGGLES!

Adam, by trying to silence people that are bringing up legitimate concerns, you are once again trying to silence students. They are members of the student body and voicing their concerns. You are trying to sweep the concerns under a rug and silence their voices again. Why again should people speak if the SGA doesn't care to listen?

P.S. I will await your answers to these questions as long as it takes but I doubt I will get them because you don't have the b**** to admit you comitted a great wrong against the students of this university.

I would just like to point out to Adam that just because a comitee decided the penalty does not automatically make it right. The thought that anyone, whether as a comittee or an individual can take away a student voice is insane. I can't believe that anyone with the title "Justice" would support it.

Adam, would you please comment on the conflict of interest issue regarding the Chief Justice? It seems that the person in charge of infraction reports for the election had a vested interest in one party winning, that he himself reported an infraction by their opponents, and that he furthermore had majority control over the appeals committee in case they cared to dispute the result. Certainly the partiality of his handling of infractions submitted by each side is in question, especially with commentators alleging that infractions reported against Total Package never went anywhere. Furthermore, commentators here allege that the infraction was not submitted in writing, although you dispute this. If you dispute these allegations, why did you not comment to the CT when the article was being written? Surely they requested a statement from both you and Aaron Bock; why did you not give one? Your only remaining option to clear your names is to release any and all documentation related to this election immediately. If your administration has been abiding by correct process as claimed, you should have available written infraction reports from both sides as well as the votes and summaries from the hearings for those infractions.

To Mr. 7:53: what the hell do you expect me to do? You guys come on here and want explanations. I give you explanations and then you say I am "silencing the students"? Are you serious? How retarded are you?

What 99% of the people here don't realize is that the student body created these rules. Your SGA representatives were in favor of these rules. Your SGA representatives represent the studet body. Talk to them if you don't like it. I dont approve the rules. The legislative body does. Its a system of checks and balances, if you know anything about basic US government structure.

Hey Chris, you talk a lot of crap for ignorant piece of s***. YOUR SGA REPRESENTATIVES THOUGHT THIS RULE WAS A GOOD IDEA. I am not an SGA Representative. Don't think I have b****, huh? You wouldn't know what b**** were if they slapped you in the face.

Adam, people address these concerns about SGA infractions and you basically tell people to ignore them. They are students addressing their concerns and you are trying to squelch their voices because of the actions of the SGA. Students are sitting here expressing their concern and all the SGA can say is that there is nothing wrong and people need to ignore these people and not get on board with them. As I said, you are showing that the SGA doesn't care to listen to the concerns of students. Now I ask, how retarded are you to come here and do that?

Adam, good job then in impersonating one and implying many times over in your posts that you were affiliated with the SGA.

David. First off, it is not my responsibility to give statements to the Collegiate Times. I choose to not work with that organization when at all possible. I voice my opinions here because I feel it is necessary (at times, and to a certain extent) to defend the actions of SGA. As for the the issue of a conflict of interest: There is a conflict of interest inherent within all aspects of SGA. We as an SGA did our best to minimize this in the election process. To simply replace Aaron with someone new in late February (when executive candidates petitioned) would have caused chaos with the election process. Aaron had to answer to several people, including myself, the SGA adviser, and ultimately the Legislative Branch of the SGA, which virtually eliminated the chance for him to exhibit any bias.

9:11: When have I told anyone to ignore anything? I have simply explained what happened, why it happened, and who let it happen. In essence, I was defending the actions of SGA and informing uneducated people of the situation. Please enlighten me as to where I informed people to ignore these issues.

So what students got to vote on the change from monetary to restricting votes because I never got to vote? Maybe SGA should come up with a way to communicate with students as a whole?

Corruption FTW. You know how you know this was a corrupt fix of an election? Because they are desperatly trying to pretend it was ok to remove votes while they figure out a way to cover it up. If you admit to that I'll lend you my broom, wait no I'll sweep it under the rug for you.

Anonymous, do you know how to read? Your SGA representatives vote on this for you. It is the purpose of electing representatives. This might come as a shock to you, but the country you live in works the same way! You don't get to vote on laws! Your representatives do! Crazy!

I would agree with the dude from 3:37 pm and Adam

At least votes don't get removed in this countries elections. The purpose of "electing" representatives is to have the students vote and letting the winner be chosen by the students, not by the removal of votes for candidate faults.

I would agree with the dude from 9:31pm and Brandon

you people are insane. rather than sit here and blame people why don't you go out and get involved with SGA before you try and cast an uneducated opinion. if you want to change SGA in some way get off your ass and do something about it. SGA is an organization of students who are trying their best to represent you. again they are students working for students. they aren't perfect. OH WELL. and for all those who say that SGA doesn't do anything for you, I'm sure that you've never participated in the following: The Big Event Relay for Life Hokie Effect (yeah those t shirts we wear are designed through SGA) Hokies on Fire Diversity Forums Constituent Outreach Events Community Picnics Hokie Hype Learn what SGA does for the students and how hard the volunteers work before criticizing. Oh and if you want your voice heard, there are over 600 seats in the house so i suggest you join a student organization, apply to be their house rep and let your voice be heard. if you're too lazy to do that then sit at home and continue to sound like uneducated retards on the CT website

Adam, you say our Representatives were in favor of the rules and voted on it. Could you please use the SGA website and point to the meeting minutes in which this was discussed and voted on by our Representatives?

Adam: You say that the rules were approved by the House and Senate, those rules included mandating that there be a write in vote. Section 3 I believe. Does this mean that you can selectively observe the rules that you like, and ignore those that you do not? I am very confused as to where your power begins and ends, please enlighten me.

Adam, before you start blowing up at all of us for taking concern in the SGA, consider this: Everytime anyone complains about our local, state, or federal government without running for office, they are doing the exact same thing that everyone here is doing, challenging the government without direct involvement. I think that everyone, not just those in SGA, should realize that you cannot silence a group that you claim to represent without some sort of backlash against that group. If you cannot complain about things without running for office or taking a front seat role, then I say that you are just as guilty as we are. The people are a check against government, just as there are internal checks. That I am a member gives me a voice, no matter at what level I hold membership. I would like to leave with a quote by Patrick Henry “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” the people are now obligated to act in this fashion to keep our voices from being silenced.

I would just like to point out that a member of SGA, one who represents the students and their concerns, chooses to curse out students who speak up against him. That really shows how much SGA cares about the student. No matter where you stand on SGA, that speaks volumes about their real motives.

at 10:03 -- I did do something and ironically the newly elected officials were nice to me and Adam spewed the same crap he did here, basically he said that my vote can be removed because the officials I "elected" in the past said it could be removed.

Adam: I understand your reluctance to deal with the Media, but sometimes it is necessary to correct the record, especially when you are the one who would hold with key evidence to support SGA, if such exists. Is the Legislative branch not led by the Chief Justice? It is incorrect to assume that the department Aaron controls can exercise oversight. This includes your position as "Associate Chief Justice" which suggests you are auxiliary to Aaron (Could you clarify what function you serve? I see no mention of your position in the Constitution at http://www.sga.vt.edu/constbylaws.htm). So in truth, Aaron is only accountable to the SGA Adviser, and that only insofar as he keeps that adviser "well informed."

haha a member of SGA's executive just cursed out people he so called represents on a public website!!! hahahaha! wow, I hope other schools dont hear about this cause people like Adam just straight up embarrass this school and all we stand for.

His intentions are what is best for the students. If you look at MANY other schools in the country, they penilize infractions by detracting votes. Now, can we fine hundreds of thousands of dollars like they do in the US? No. If we do do that and an infracted individual is inaugurated, there will still be chaos. In Adam's case, it is a lose-lose. Adam followed the constitution and is trying his best, yet all you do is bash him.

Is the democratic party wrong for not counting the votes from Florida and Michigan then...because rules were broken?

Indiana makes it almost impossible to vote in their state. One must drive a car to be permitted to vote. Some of the hardest ways to vote. Now, the poor aren't represented? Why isn't there an uproar about this?

How could SGA follow the constitution when they didn't even HAVE a copy of it during elections when students asked for it?

oh no! adam used a bad word! how dare he do that! tisk tisk! too bad adam isnt a member of sga exec anymore 1107. but you get those panties in a bunch over nothing!!

To: how about indiana Because SGA is a BIG DEAL! But seriously, people get in an uproar about what happens in their backyard. While I agree that there are lots of problems lots more important than this alleged SGA fraud (warrantless wiretapping and the push for telecom immunity, Pentagon military analysts propaganda, e-voting without voter-verifiable paper trails, etc.), last time I checked, this article doesn't even have the word "Indiana" in it.

Okay, but you act like the SGA making an honest mistake is the biggest crime in US History. The elected officials are still going to serve their constituents to the best of their ability.

You are free to correct your mistake anytime, I am guessing it was unintentional for you to put honest and mistake in the same sentence there.

What is your point? Enlighten me.

Get up and show SGA the outrage. If you feel your vote should never be taken away please join this group. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12902636117

I'd get out and do something about this but it isn't worth my time. The SGA is without a doubt one of the most useless clubs we have. Its a massive beurocracy incapable of accomplishing anything useful despite whoever is in office. This group is to government organizations what Crossfire is to debate. Its simply a tool administrators use to pacify us. I know that they do big event event and a few other events but what are they aren't doing what they are supposed to be doing and thats representing our interests to the administration. In response to the argument "if the SGA get involved" you fix it first and then I'll get involved thats why we voted for you. Do your job and don't try to pass the buck to us.