Allegations delay board of governors election results; senate results in
Appeal committee to decide on problems with vote.
By Matt DiMera
[news editor]
The official results of the student Kwantlen board of governors (BOG) elections are still unknown this week, as one unnamed candidate is alleged to have broken the rules while campaigning.
In the March 2011 online election for two student BOG representatives, Robert Mumford and Keri Van Gerven received the highest amount of votes, with 102 and 98 respectively.
The rules around campaigning in BOG elections are not very detailed, only saying that candidates must engage in “fair play.”
In a message posted on myKwantlen, Registrar Robert Hensley said his preliminary investigation has found enough evidence to merit forming an official appeal committee to review the election results.
Hensley said the committee will be created as soon as possible and will consist of himself, a Dean, a faculty member, and a student. The committee will decide if the results should stand, or if the student in question should be disqualified, or if the election should be scrapped and started again.
SENATE RESULTS
Three new faces and one old one were elected as the student representatives to Kwantlen’s senate, Tuesday, March 22.
Kari Michaels, Christopher Girodat, Sarah Szendrei and Robert Mumford garnered the most votes. From 2008-2010, Mumford was previously an elected student member of the BOG.
Incumbents Derek Robertson and Ken McIntyre did not win re-election, coming in sixth and seventh in a field of seven candidates.
Robertson a three-term student senator and two-time former KSA director of external affairs had been on senate and its predecessor, the education council since 2007.
Newly-elected Senator Kari Michaels is excited to take office in the Fall and attributes the results to a lack of engagement from the incumbents.
“For one, I didn’t see any campaign material from any of the incumbents,” said Michaels. “I don’t think that [they] talked to students very much when they were on Senate.”
While senate terms are normally scheduled to begin as of September 1, Sarah Szendrei and Christopher Girodat will take office immediately to fill two vacancies. Michaels, Girodat, Szendrei and Mumford will serve as senators until August 2012.
