The ASUO Constitution Court ruled on both of Ducks Like You’s grievances against Mighty Oregon on Friday. The court dismissed the grievance which stated that Mighty Oregon was trading materials for votes, but it ruled to suspend Mighty Oregon senatorial candidate Emily Wu after she admitted to writing campaign advertisements on chalk boards in two classrooms.

According to the court’s email, Wu will be suspended from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday.

“The court appreciated that Ms. Wu came forward and took full responsibility for the chalk boarding,” the email said. “The sanction ordered is less severe than what this violation would usually call for (48-hours of no campaigning) and we are leaving her the last hour today to campaign before voting closes.”

Wu said that she personally thinks that the court ruled fairly.

The court also wrote in its ruling that they are “dismayed at the rise in frivolous grievances filed with this court this past week.” The court will not be accepting any more grievances that it considers to not have a sustained claim with hard evidence. According to the court, it needs more evidence than statements made by parties of one campaign versus the statement’s of another campaign.

“The court is appalled at the alleged actions in the grievances filed the last few days. The actions alleged are not the actions of future student leaders and the court is disappointed that these types of claims are arising,” the court wrote. “All campaigns should know the rules and should not be trying to skirt them.”

The court will be in recess from Friday at 9 a.m. until Monday at 8 a.m. If the court receives a grievance that they consider to have substantial evidence they will not make its decision until 8 a.m. on Monday.

The Ducks Like You campaign filed back-to-back grievances against the Mighty Oregon campaign on Thursday. The first grievance states that Mighty Oregon was allegedly trading Mighty Oregon merchandise for voting signatures, and the second grievance said that Mighty Oregon senatorial candidate Emily Wu wrote “Vote for Emily Wu” and “Vote Emily Wu for Senate Seat 12 on Duckweb” on the chalkboard in Friendly rooms 106 and 206.

The grievance regarding the trade of a T-shirt for a signature violates Elections Rules 9.8, 7.13.2, 9.8.1, and 6.1.

The rules state that campaigns are allowed to distribute items such as T-shirts, but they cannot be exchanged with the expectation of receiving a vote in return.

Samantha Cohen, a candidate for Ducks Like You, wrote in the grievance that Tuesday, April 15, she overheard Mighty Oregon member Alex Titus say to a person, “If you sign this, we’ll give you a T-shirt.”

“I have reason to suspect that Alex Titus was implicitly giving out materials in exchange for vote pledges, and these pledges would be used to contact the people who signed,” Cohen wrote in the grievance.

Along with Cohen, Ducks Like You members Jaki Salgado and Diana Salazar gave testimonies, as well as Daniel Espino, who is not involved in the Ducks Like You campaign, according to the grievance.

“I was on my computer when I overheard an interaction between Taylor Allison and a group of folks who approached their table,” Salgado wrote in her statement. “She asked, ‘Hey would you like a shirt?’ Before handing the shirt she gave them a paper asking them to ‘just sign this.’ I looked over while the two folks signed the petition.”

Slazar and Espino’s statements were similar to Cohen’s and Salgado’s, except their statements deal with the exchanges of sunglasses instead of T-shirts.

“After hearing about the first incident, we didn’t do anything, but after all of the other incidents we decided to go forward with writing a grievance,” Ducks Like You campaign advisor Lamar Wise said. “It was clearly something that wasn’t going away anytime soon.”

“Once again, Ducks Like You has misinterpreted actions of our campaign, much like they did with the LTD contract,” Titus said. “The cards the students filled out were for volunteer sign up and had nothing to do with vote pledging.”

Mighty Oregon campaign advisor Evan Roth also explained that the cards were for volunteer sign ups, and not vote pledging.

In regards to the grievance against Wu, Wu admitted that she wrote on the chalkboards in Friendly 106 and 206.

“I was the one who wrote the campaign material on the chalkboards. No one else on the campaign, or the campaign itself is responsible for it,” Wu wrote in her statement. “The campaign had no prior knowledge of it, the campaigning was all my own. I sincerely apologize for breaking the ASUO elections rules, I was under the impression that it wasn’t a violation of the rules.”

In both cases, Ducks Like You is requesting for the Mighty Oregon campaign to be banned from campaigning on Friday, which is the last day of the primary elections. Elections end at 4 p.m. April 18.

Ducks Like You’s grievance against Mighty Oregon’s Emily Wu.

Ducks Like You’s grievance against Mighty Oregon.

Within 24 hours of Mighty Oregon’s grievance of intimidation and harassment against Ducks Like You, the Ducks Like You campaign responded by filing a petition for review against the grievance.

Mighty Oregon senatorial candidate Mack Smith and University of Oregon student Charlie Truxal were among some of the people stated as victims of harassment and intimidation in Mighty Oregon’s grievance. The petition for review responds to those allegations, as well as the others that were presented in the initial grievance.

In regards to Truxal being told “go fuck yourself” by a Ducks Like You volunteer, Ducks Like You representative Lamar Wise wrote in the petition for review that no evidence is proven as to who this volunteer was or if they were wearing a Ducks Like You shirt.

“Concerning the allegation of Mack Smith approaching a student about Mighty Oregon and getting the response ‘Yeah, the campaign with blatant racism and bigotry’ petitioner provides no evidence as to who this ‘volunteer’ was or proof that they were actually volunteering,” Wise wrote. “Just because someone is in a Ducks Like You shirt does not mean they are a volunteer … Ducks Like you has passed out over 600 shirts in the past two days, which means any one of those 600 people could have said such a statement.”

The petition for review states that Wise conducted an internal investigation of the allegations. Wise led the investigation, and according to him, Ducks Like You members did not not tell volunteers or voters that Mighty Oregon was racist.

“It’s more to show that most of their grievance is just hearsay. They provide very little proof with their allegations,” Wise said. “We’ve been experiencing the same issues, but instead we’ve been trying to educate voters, instead of filing grievances.”

“(Ducks Like You) are unapologetic regarding slanderous and false statements made to our volunteers and supporters,” Mighty Oregon campaign advisor and author of the initial grievance Evan Roth said. “We will stand by our decision to protect them from harassment.”

The Ducks Like You campaign did discover during the investigation that Ducks Like You volunteer Tru Mallon did say the phrase, “racist assholes,” but it was not towards Mighty Oregon members Roth, Charisse Gluck or ASUO Senator Josh Losner, according to the petition for review.

“(Mallon) provided a statement saying, ‘I was walking with my debate partner from this year and complaining about judges who don’t like the activism type debate that we do and as I was walking along I was complaining about one specific judge who I particularly don’t like and referred to him as ‘this racist asshole’ at the moment that we happened to be walking past the Mighty Oregon table,’” Wise wrote. “(The) respondent isn’t at fault for Mighty Oregon members mishearing Tru Mallon.”

However, Losner doesn’t agree with how Mallon recalls the situation.

“You would think that if he was really talking to his debate partner he would have said, ‘Sorry, I was referring to somebody else,’” Losner said. ”I was talking with my friend on 13th next to the Mighty Oregon campaign booth and Mallon walked by, looked at my friend (Gluck) and I and called us ‘racist assholes.’ He and his friend looked at me as they walked away and I said ‘what was that for?’ (and he gave) no response whatsoever.”

According to the grievance, Ducks Like You has also experience slanderous remarks from Mighty Oregon. Some of the examples being that Mighty Oregon members will tell freshmen that Ducks Like You want to “defund Greek Life,” that “the Ducks Like You is cutting athletics,” and that “Ducks Like You will only fund multicultural unions.”

The petition for review applied the same election rule violations 9.8, 9.8.1, and 6.8 on Mighty Oregon, which were the same violations Mighty Oregon put on its grievance against Ducks Like You.

“If any of their claims are accurate, we will ensure that all volunteers and supporters are educated on all our stances,” Roth said. “Unfortunately, Ducks Like You is blatantly lying to students”

The petition for review has been sent to the ASUO Constitution Court for review, but there is no word on when the court will make its decision.

Petition for Review filed by Ducks Like You against Mighty Oregon.

Live coverage of Wednesday night’s ASUO Senate meeting:

Senate Agenda

Mighty Oregon campaign advisor Evan Roth filed a grievance towards the Ducks Like You campaign Tuesday night, citing that “Ducks Like You has been unable to control the behavior of their individual volunteers,” according to the grievance.

In the grievance, multiple campaign volunteers and students running for a position felt that they were being intimidated and harassed by some Ducks Like You volunteers. Intimidation and harassment is a violation of Elections Rule 9.8, which states both actions are severe campaign violations.

One of the accounts of intimidation and harassment in the grievance was from Mighty Oregon senatorial candidate Mack Smith. In the grievance, Smith recalls that while she was campaigning, she approached a student and asked if he had heard about Mighty Oregon. According to Smith, the student responded by saying: “Yeah, the campaign with blatant racism and bigotry.”

“When I approached him he wasn’t wearing any campaign related shirts,” Smith said. “After he talked to me, he went over to the Ducks Like You campaign table and got a shirt and started campaigning.”

Another account from the grievance states that UO student Charlie Truxal was approached by a Ducks Like You volunteer, who asked him if he had voted yet. Truxal responded by saying that he was planning on voting for Mighty Oregon. According to the grievance, the volunteer then said verbatim: “Go fuck yourself” to Truxal.

According to Evan Roth, multiple volunteers approached Ducks Like You Campaign Manager Helena Schlegel and Ducks Like You campaign advisor Lamar Wise.

“Multiple people from our campaign approached (Wise and Schlegel) but they said that it was just one of those things and that they’re not able to control the actions of each individual volunteer,” Roth said.

“First off, I was never approached as the grievance stated regarding these allegations,” Schlegel said. “This is an Alex Titus issue. If Mighty Oregon does not want everyone, not just “volunteers” to want to engage in critical conversations about race, then maybe Mighty Oregon should not have openly racist members and supporters.”

The “Alex Titus issue” is a reference to the dorm room conversation between ASUO presidential candidate Thomas Tullis, Marshall Kosloff, Ben Bowman and Titus. The conversation was recorded and subsequently released to the public. Some students took offense to some of Titus’ remarks. The students that appeared at the ASUO Senate meeting on April 9, considered some of the remarks racist.

“The majority of our organizers were the ones called ‘motherfuckers’ (in the recording). This is our daily lives,” Schlegel said. “Our attempts to address cultural competency are being misquoted and misconstrued in order to point Ducks Like You in a bad light.”

Roth requested in the grievance that Ducks Like You be placed on prohibition from campaigning for an undefined period in order to “dissuade further offenses.”

“There were other incidents but some people on our campaign wanted to stay anonymous,” Roth said. “It’s unfortunate that this is happening and that people are being called racist. That’s rough for them and, for some, this is their first experience with the ASUO.”

“I will be passing this onto the ASUO Constitution Court because the Elections Board is in an ambiguous place right now,” ASUO Elections Board Member Pat Chaney said. “It’s up in the air whether or not the Elections Board can act now.”

According to Chaney, he will not be involved when the court reviews or decides on the grievance.

Evan Roth’s grievance filed against the Ducks Like You campaign.

Live coverage of Wednesday night’s ASUO Senate meeting:

Senate Agenda

ASUO presidential candidate Thomas Tullis isn’t bashful about voicing his disapproval of OSPIRG. Nor is he afraid of writing about it.

In an article that Tullis wrote for the Oregon Commentator in February titled “Dirty Hippies: Take a Fucking Shower Instead of Our Money,” Tullis goes into great detail about his dissatisfaction with OSPIRG trying to gain funding through the ASUO. Four proposed ballots submitted to the ASUO  — which were eventually shot down by the University of Oregon administration and the ASUO Constitution Court — asked OSPIRG to be funded at $1.60 per student per term, so that they would be able to hire a professional staffer.

“It’s come to our attention here at The Oregon Commentator that OSPIRG is trying to work its dirty magic again,” Tullis wrote in his article. “They don’t seem to understand that we voted them out and that they are no longer recognized as a campus group. Yet they keep coming back like a hippie zombie that feeds on student money instead of brains.”

Tullis still stands by the article’s message.

“There were some suggestions from the editor to make the article speak more in the Oregon Commentator’s voice, but in the end it’s my name on the article, and I stand by what I wrote,” Tullis said.

Some of the suggestions that came from the Oregon Commentator’s editor, Martin Hallstrom included the title and the final line in the article, “Until next time. Go Ducks and fuck OSPIRG.”

“I edit the content, but I have dialogue with the writer, and it’s important that the message comes across as something that both the writer and the Commentator are in support of,” Hallstrom said. “The Commentator has been against OSPIRG as far back as 30 years, and we don’t do the politically correct process.”

Regardless of Tullis’ sentiments, OSPIRG exists on campus because of student support.

“The students last year voted that they wanted us on campus, and the majority of students want us here,” said Hannah Picknell, UO Chapter Chair for OSPIRG. “We want to be here for the students, and we’ll continue to have a presence on campus.”

Tullis’ primary argument in the article is that the $1.60 that OSPIRG asked to receive from each UO student was money that wasn’t worth giving to OSPIRG. According to Tullis, that money would be used to fund lobbyists who would endorse a political agenda in Salem and Washington D.C. that not every student at the UO is in support of.

“I can think of thousands of better ways to spend my $1.60 each term that keeps the money on campus instead of putting it in the pocket of some professional advocating in Salem and D.C. to save Crater Lake and to get big money out of politics,’” Tullis wrote in his article.

Tullis is in support of OSPIRG having a presence on campus, and if they want to have a UO voice outside of campus, then Tullis believes that they should send UO students, not a professional lobbyist.

“I think a lot of students see OSPIRG on campus, and they see it as a good thing, and I don’t look at their presence on campus as bad either,” Tullis said. “But if they want to have their opinions represented, then they need to represent themselves, and to not have a full salary lobbyist doing their job.”

A condensed version of the article can be found on the Oregon Commenator’s website, but the full article is only available in their February print issue.

Interested in more information about the ASUO 2014 elections? View all of our coverage here.

The ASUO Constitution Court approved a request from ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz’s to issue a motion for a clarification for the upcoming ASUO elections process on Tuesday night, and granted Dotters-Katz permission to appoint Constitution Court member Pat Chaney as the new ASUO Elections Board Coordinator.

Chaney was the Elections Board Coordinator during the 2013 ASUO elections.

Chaney has denied to comment at this time.

Dotters-Katz’s motion for clarification to appoint a new Elections Board Coordinator comes after the entire Elections Board resigned on Friday, due to the University of Oregon’s administration’s overruling of an ASUO decision to disqualify presidential candidate Ben Bowman from the ASUO elections. The decision was made after presidential candidate Thomas Tullis filed a grievance against Bowman, citing intimidation and bribery. The administration also ruled to delay the elections to April 14.

The Dotters-Katz rejected administrative intervention, and is planning to appoint Chaney to the position in order to continue with the elections outside of administrative interference.

“If confirmed, Pat (Chaney) would take a leave of absence from the Court, and would not participate in any matters with the Court until he is done as Elections Chair,” Dotters-Katz said. “Pat served in this position last year, and has the knowledge and experience necessary to run these elections right now.”

When Chaney was the Elections Board Coordinator last year, he faced a similar situation with the UO Administration intervening on the elections. During the 2013 elections, the ASUO Constitution Court withheld the election results in order to take time to review a grievance that was filed by Ducks For a Difference Campaign Manager Andrew Rogers against the United Oregon campaign, which was Dotters-Katz’s slate. The grievance was filed on the grounds of bribing students for their vote in exchange for United Oregon T-shirts.

The administration intervened by ruling that the ASUO elections results needed to be released, citing that the ASUO elections are not subject to Oregon law.

If Chaney is appointed, he will then make his appointments to fill out the remainder of the board, and the ASUO Senate will either approve or not approve them during their senate meetings in the coming weeks. Until the appointments are made, the Constitution Court will be in charge of reviewing any elections grievances that are filed.

Voting is still planned to commence on April 14.

The fate of this year’s ASUO elections is unclear following a series of events involving an illicitly recorded conversation, the University of Oregon administration stepping in and the breakfast time arrest of a presidential candidate.

The season has reached a boiling point and shows no signs of cooling down.

It is unclear when voting can take place since there is currently no body to oversee the process following the resignation of all five members of the Elections Board.

The controversy dates back to finals week of winter term when Fresh Start Oregon presidential candidate Thomas Tullis filed a grievance against Ben Bowman, Mighty Oregon’s presidential candidate at the time. Tullis accused Bowman of intimidation, harassment and bribery. Tullis also claimed that Bowman, Marshall Kosloff and Alex Titus used these tactics in an effort to dissuade him from running for ASUO president. The conversation occurred in Tullis’ room in Riley Hall. A recorded phone call was cited as the primary instance of the intimidation.

“I was subject to a very hostile conversation with (Bowman), Kosloff and Titus, and I’m seeking that he gets the proper consequences for it,” Tullis wrote in his grievance.

Tullis sought to disqualify Bowman from the race. Tullis’ request was granted after the Elections Board reviewed the recorded phone conversation and the text of the grievance then held a hearing with Titus, Kosloff and Bowman. The Mighty Oregon presidential candidate was disqualified from the race on March 20.

Bowman appealed the board’s ruling but was denied his request by the Constitution Court on March 30. Mighty Oregon then appointed Taylor Allison as its presidential candidate April 2.

Enter the administration. On April 4, Vice President of Student Affairs Robin Holmes informed the university community via email that elections would be delayed to April 14. Holmes also put Bowman back on the ballot. Within minutes of the administration’s decision, former ASUO Elections Board Coordinator MacGregor Ehlen resigned. In his emailed resignation, Ehlen wrote that he stood by the Elections Board’s decision to disqualify Bowman. He mentioned that every member of the board and the ASUO Constitution Court voted to disqualify Bowman as well.

“Unethical conduct has become institutionalized in the ASUO and it is a shame that people accept the status quo,” Ehlen’s resignation read.

Following Ehlen’s resignation, the board’s remaining members — Drew Spainhower, Alex Davis, Madison Berger and Rujun Cao — stepped down as well.

A little more than 24 hours later, a knock came at Tullis’ door. It was the police. Tullis was arrested for recording the conversation between Bowman, Kosloff, Titus and himself in the room at Riley Hall.

Tullis was held in jail for allegedly defying ORS 165.540, a law forbidding the recording of a person-to-person conversation without the consent or knowledge of both parties. He was released more than four hours later.

ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz began drafting a letter threatening to dismantle the ASUO after the administration reinstated Bowman.

“If the Administration both refuses to reverse this decision and prohibits the ASUO from holding its own elections process, we, the undersigned, will close down the ASUO” Dotters-Katz wrote.

Dotters-Katz was disappointed with university administrators because of the ASUO’s supposed autonomy — the administration only steps in when a state or federal law is broken. Administrators have not disclosed a clear reason for intervening in the elections process. Holmes said that this is due to privacy issues and limitations.

Dotters-Katz doesn’t believe that the administration has reason to intervene. His disapproval of the administration’s intervention was so strong that he and ASUO External Vice President Greg Mills drafted a letter threatening to shut down the student government unless the administration overturned its ruling.

Holmes wrote in a statement to The Emerald that it’s the administration’s responsibility to ensure university policies and laws are followed. The administration steps in when those laws are breached.

“The decision to intervene in the ASUO election process was a difficult one to make, and was made after much deliberation and consultation with numerous interested parties,” Holmes wrote. “It is not always possible to share additional information as there are privacy issues and limitations on what can be shared publicly. I hope the election will proceed smoothly when balloting begins on April 14th.”

Administrators also stepped in during last year’s ASUO elections to reverse a Constitution Court ruling. Even though the votes had been tallied, the court ruled to hold the results following bribery allegations. Administration reversed the ruling and published the elections results and a win for Dotters-Katz over Lamar Wise. There are no set policies on when the administration can interfere with ASUO proceedings, blurring the line between student autonomy and administrative responsibility. In the past administration has stepped in when issues of state or federal law enter the ASUO elections.

However, elections cannot take place without an Elections Board, according to the ASUO Constitution. The entire Elections Board’s resignation is unprecedented, and according to Dotters-Katz, campaigning can’t continue while there is no board.

According to ASUO Senate President Matthew Miyamoto, the process of replacing the elections board would mirror what took place at the beginning of the year. That process may take a minimum of four weeks. It can take longer. It took approximately 3 1/2 months to hire Ehlen and his Elections Board. Appointing a new Elections Board coordinator and hiring a new board would significantly delay the elections process.

It is currently uncertain whether the original Elections Board can come back or if its members are willing to do so.

“Until admin changes their ruling I don’t know if anyone on the Elections Board will come back,” Ehlen said.

As of press time, the UO administration stands by April 14 as the first day of voting for this year’s elections.

Ducks Like You will be on the ballot.

“We’re excited for elections to get going and start working on some of the issues and get more investment back from the student body,” Ducks Like You presidential candidate Beatriz Gutierrez said. “I think we’ve lost a lot of it in the last week with all this drama.”

Editor’s Note: Ben Bowman was the Emerald’s Opinion Editor earlier this year. He no longer works for the Emerald.

MacGregor Ehlen resigned from his position as the ASUO Elections Board Coordinator on Friday after the University of Oregon Administration postponed the ASUO elections until April 14. According to Ben Bowman and Ehlen, Bowman will appear on the ballot.

Within one hour of Ehlen’s resignation, fellow Elections Board members Madison Berger, Alex Davis and Drew Spainhower resigned from their position as well. Early Saturday morning, the last remaining member of the Elections Board, Rujun Cao, resigned as well.

“I stand by our decision and find this breach of student autonomy egregious,” Ehlen wrote in his resignation email. “Students agree to follow election rules when they file for their candidacy, there is no excuse for overturning this process.”

According to Ehlen, all five members of the elections board and the five members of the ASUO Constitution Court ruled that Bowman violated election rules.

“I think it is important to note that this is the second year that the Administration has intervened in ASUO Elections and overturned a Con Court decision. I believe this reflects an overall systemic problem that our elected student leaders may want to address,” Chief Justice Allison Apana said. “Our student government must move forward and proceed with the elections in the timetable set forth by the Administration. Ultimately it will be up to the voters to give the recent events whatever weight they deem appropriate, if any, when casting their ballots.”

Upon hearing the news, Bowman felt exonerated with the administration’s decision and is hopeful for a new Elections Board that “will be committed to due process and evidence-based decisions.”

“I’ve said from the beginning that I didn’t do anything wrong and it feels good to finally be vindicated,” Bowman said. “This process has been exhausting for everyone, and it’s definitely going to be a tough election, but I’m hopeful that when the truth gets out, students will support the ideas of our campaign.”

After Bowman was removed from the ballot Wednesday evening, Mighty Oregon vice presidential candidate Taylor Allison was appointed to the presidential slot. Although Vice President of Student Affairs Robin Holmes placed Bowman back on the ballot, Allison will not support her previous running mate.

“I will not be supporting my former running mate, Ben Bowman, and I will work with all involved parties to get this resolved,” Allison said. “I will not stand for this decision and I will take any actions necessary to ensure that Ben Bowman will not be put back on the ballot.”

The Elections Board disqualified Bowman from the ASUO elections on March 20 after reviewing the grievance filed against him by fellow presidential candidate Thomas Tullis. On March 30, the ASUO Constitution Court upheld the board’s decision and Bowman was officially removed from the ticket.

Holmes sent postponed voting to April 14 and said the original group of executive candidates will be back on the ballot via email. She was not available for comment at the time of publication.

“Based on concerns brought to my attention today, the ASUO election process is postponed so that the University can ensure that the process conforms to applicable University regulations and policies,” Holmes wrote. “I recognize that it is disruptive to the candidates and a burden for many when we postpone an election. However, we must strike a balance between ensuring a fair process and allowing candidates to focus on their educational priorities.”

ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz and Tullis are disappointed with the administration’s decision.

“The fact that a convicted bully would be let off the hook by the university administration because he threatens his victims and this university with legal action is deeply disappointing,” Dotters-Katz said. “This is a victory for bullies, for people who think you can use power and privilege to get ahead in life by harassing and intimidating others.”

“By reversing the decision of the Elections Board and the ASUO Constitution Court, the administration is validating and endorsing Bowman’s fear tactics and intimidation,” Tullis said. “They’re also stepping on the student government’s autonomy. I oppose this 100 percent and the idea that the UO administration would overrun ASUO rules and support Bowman’s egregious actions is something that should infuriate every student on campus.”

Ducks Like You presidential candidate Beatriz Gutierrez also has thoughts and concerns about administration’s involvement.

“I’m really concerned. It’s dangerous for the administration to be stepping in,” Guitierrez said. “The Elections Board and the Constitutional Court had their decisions made, this is a student autonomy issue. The Ducks Like You campaign will not be standing by this. We will be working with students on this issue because it is bigger than just the students elections.”