Taylor Allison was appointed as the new presidential candidate for the Mighty Oregon campaign tonight, Wednesday, April 2. Allison replaces former candidate Ben Bowman, who was disqualified from the ASUO elections.

“Mighty Oregon is excited to move forward and ready to work to serve students to the best of our ability,” Allison said. “Our slate is full of incredible and passionate leaders and we are all looking forward to the next few weeks of campaigns.”

Allison’s appointment comes just a few days after the ASUO Constitution Court decided to uphold the ASUO Elections Board decision to disqualify Bowman from the ASUO elections as a presidential candidate. After his disqualification, the choice for the new candidate came down to Bowman’s two former running mates — Taylor Allison and Austin Palacios.

Palacios decided not to be one of Allison’s running mates and as of now, neither of the vice president positions have been appointed.

Live coverage of Wednesday night’s ASUO Senate meeting:

Senate Agenda

In light of recent grievances, appeals, and the ASUO Constitution Court upholding the Elections Board’s decision to disqualify Ben Bowman as a presidential candidate, ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz sent an email to Vice President for Student Affairs Robin Holmes on Monday to request that the elections be delayed by one week.

“Candidates should have reasonable time to prepare, and the student body is better served by having an appropriate amount of time to learn about the candidates, or even know who the candidates are,” Dotters-Katz said to Holmes in his email.

As of Monday, the Mighty Oregon slate – which Bowman was representing – currently doesn’t have a replacement to fill the now empty presidential candidate seat. Since students won’t have the same amount of time to learn about the new candidate from Mighty Oregon once one is chosen, Dotters-Katz believes that students deserve to have an extra week to learn about him or her before voting.

Holmes replied back to Dotters-Katz’s email and said that as of now, there isn’t a reason for the administration to intervene in the elections.

“I have been following the process and decisions of the Elections Board and Con Court,” Holmes wrote in her response to Dotters-Katz. “At this time, the administration has no plans to intervene and the election will be held next week as scheduled.”

Elections Board Coordinator MacGregor Ehlen agrees with Dotters-Katz’s idea, especially since not all of the candidates have been slated for the elections ballot.

“I think that it’s the best course of action, especially since Mighty Oregon hasn’t given us a name to replace Bowman yet,” Ehlen said.

As a presidential candidate, Thomas Tullis wouldn’t be against a one week delay in the elections himself.

“I think that so far this year things have played out unusually,” Tullis said. “So a decision to delay the elections wouldn’t be inappropriate or unfounded.”

The Sexual Assault Prevention Task Force is looking to emphasize its effectiveness in preventing sexual assault during the 2014-2015 school year. Now it has the financial support to do so from ASUO and the university.

For the last two years, the Sexual Assault Prevention Task Force has been issuing reports on when and where sexual violence occurs on campus, as well as giving its recommendations to the ASUO as to what the best steps are to prevent sexual assault from happening.

Now its thoughts are getting turned into actions.

“This is a huge epidemic. We want to hit this at every angle possible,” ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz said. The task force is a semi-autonomous unit under the ASUO executive. ”Some of what we’re doing is preventive, but it’s also about empowering men to call people out to stop these situations from happening.”

“Bystander intervention is one of the biggest problems in terms of sexual assault,” task force member Ben Bowman said during the presentation to the ASUO Senate. “It’s much easier to look the other way than to say something.”

The task force wants to reach out and train a minimum of 10 percent of the student body every year. The task force is also planning to add more emergency phone boxes in various parts of campus and more lighting throughout the community where students live instead of just on campus.

The primary goal for the task force is to raise student awareness. The committee wants to get student groups involved in a substantial way — specifically freshmen and Fraternity and Sorority Life.

“One plan is to have sororities pledge to not have any official functions with any fraternities who haven’t gone through any of the training module,” ASUO Senator and task force member Amy Jones said. “To start off, we want at least 25-50 percent of the members in the fraternity to have taken that model.”

The training module that Jones is referring to is a new module that will be similar to the Alcohol.edu training that freshman and transfer students have to take.

Financial backing for the task force’s ambitions haven’t only been backed by the Program Finance Committee that allocates their funds — but the UO administration is also showing its support for the cause.

“The administration has been stepping up hugely on this,” Dotters-Katz said. “A lot of what we’re doing is the partnership with the administration, and they’ve footed a lot of the bill on what we’re trying to accomplish.”

According to Dotters-Katz, the administration is giving the task force roughly $80,000. On top of the administration’s money, the ASUO approved for the Program Finance Committee to allocate nearly $175,000 to the task force, which is $38,000 more than the task force received last year, according to the final budgets for 2014-2015.

“This is a problem that no one is really good at solving,” Bowman said. “Every campus around the country is struggling with how to do this, but we think this package is going to put our campus on the map for dealing with these issues. We think there’s a tremendous amount of potential in this.”

As you walk into campus next Monday, you’ll be welcomed back to school — and to the 2014 ASUO elections.

For the first three weeks of spring term, ASUO campaigns will be taking over the streets and social media, all in the cause of getting you to vote for their candidates. To get prepared for the campaigners in Ducks Like You and Mighty Oregon T-shirts who will be asking for your vote, here’s a breakdown of  the spring ASUO election happenings. According to the elections timeline that’s provided by the ASUO, some of these dates might be subject to change, but for now here’s what you can expect:

The same day that classes begin on March 31 is also when the media campaign begins for the elections. That means pencils, buttons, stickers and anything else that you can think of that can get labeled with a candidate’s name on it will be handed out to students when they’re coming and going inside the UO campus.

The media campaign will be happening throughout the election, but for the first week it will be specifically geared toward getting students aware of the candidates who will need votes during the primaries. The election primaries begin on April 7 and end on April 11. Unlike last year, no voting will be allowed on laptops at campaigning tables, according to an announcement from ASUO Elections Board Coordinator MacGregor Ehlen at the first elections meeting on March 14.

Since three candidates — a candidate from Mighty Oregon, Beatriz Gutierrez and Thomas Tullis — are all running for president, the race won’t be over on April 11 when the primary winners are announced. The top two candidates will continue campaigning into the last stretch of the elections race, through April 14 when the official voting for the next ASUO president and ASUO senators opens to students.

For four days, the two candidates and their respected slates will be in campaign overdrive, making sure that they can be assured that they have your vote.

Once the campaign dust settles on April 18, a new president and a new set of senators will begin their transition from campaigning machines to student elected officials. By April 18, all campaign materials are required to be removed in all public areas. Just like that, three weeks of campaigning will be gone and going to class won’t be interrupted by a campaigner with a clipboard asking for your vote.

The ASUO Elections Board ruled on Friday that Juan Rivera, a candidate for Senate Seat 15 for the Ducks Like You slate, is prohibited from campaigning for the next 48 hours following the filing of a grievance by Mighty Oregon campaign manager Andrew Lubash. Ducks Like You is also prohibited from promoting Rivera during that time.

This is just the latest in a series of grievances and appeals filed against ASUO candidates over the first week of the elections cycle.

According to the grievance, Rivera posted a request for signatures on Facebook on March 13 in order to qualify for candidacy, a violation of ASUO Elections Rule 3.4.2.

The 48 hours went into effect at 3 p.m. on Friday. Lubash filed the grievance on Wednesday. In it, he requested Rivera’s removal from the ballot.

Rivera was unable to comment.

According to the Elections Board ruling, “Mr. Rivera has spoken with the Elections Board about the allegations in the grievance and takes full responsibility.”

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The Elections Board ruling on Andrew Lubash’s grievance against Juan Rivera.

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

Mighty Oregon executive candidate Ben Bowman on Friday requested a stay from the ASUO Constitution Court while the body reviews his appeal to remain on the ballot following his removal by the Elections Board Thursday.

The Elections Board is requesting that Mighty Oregon replace Bowman on the ballot by Monday. His request for a stay means that the new candidate selection is delayed in order for Bowman to appeal the decision to disqualify him from running.

The Elections Board disqualified Bowman from the executive ticket after reviewing fellow presidential candidate Thomas Tullis’ grievance against the Mighty Oregon nominee. The grievance accused Bowman of intimidation and bribery.

“We are appealing the decision to the ASUO Constitution Court and want to complete the full process before sanctions are leveled against us, as is standard for legal proceedings,” Bowman wrote in his request. ”We believe that the decision making process used by the board was biased and unfairly adjudicated.  Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, their decision contains numerous outright lies, misquotations, and factual inaccuracies to justify their decision.”

The Elections Board’s current response on Bowman’s request for a stay is that it violates the Green Tape Notebook’s rule on ex parte contact. According to the Notebook, ex parte is when contact is made between a member of the Constitution Court and anyone who’s involved in a matter that’s pending before the Court.

“The Elections Board does not approve of the violation of ex-parte contact requirements, made by Mr. Bowman, with regards to his request for a stay on our grievance procedure,” ASUO Elections Board Coordinator MacGregor Ehlen wrote in an email to the Constitution Court. ”We would also like an appropriate amount of time to respond to this request before any decision is made. Additionally, we ask that Mr. Bowman follow proper procedure when contacting the Constitution Court throughout this process.”

According to Bowman, the request for a stay is a formal request and it is not considered as communication with the court regarding a pending matter.

Bowman says that he still plans on filing an appeal, and that it will be sent to the court by Friday night. The court’s decision on Bowman’s request for a stay and Ehlen’s accusations of Bowman violating ex parte are still pending.

Follow Craig Garcia on Twitter @CraiGarcia.

Request for a Stay of Removal From the Ballot.

Update: Bowman plans on appealing the Elections Board’s ruling.

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

The ASUO Elections Board ruled on Thursday night to disqualify Ben Bowman and ASUO Freshman Representative Emily Wu from the 2014 ASUO elections ballot. The ruling comes from the grievance that was filed against Bowman and Wu by ASUO presidential candidate Thomas Tullis.

On Friday, Bowman said that he will be appealing the Elections Board’s ruling.

“We’re obviously very disappointed with the ruling. There are dozens of lies, mistruths, it’s really poorly written and it makes a very incoherent legal argument. By the end of the day we’ll be making an appeal to the ASUO Constitution Court,” Bowman said. “We’re confident that con court is going to overrule the decision and I’ll be back on the ballot. It’s disappointing that the board made their decision on lies but that’s why there’s a checks and balances in the system.”

Bowman and Wu’s disqualification from the race takes place immediately. Mighty Oregon will be allowed to replace their presidential candidate with one of the current registered vice presidential candidates, which is ASUO Senator Taylor Allison and Austin Palacios.

Tullis cited in his grievance that he was intimidated, harassed and bribed by Bowman and members on his executive ticket, including former Mighty Oregon Greek Coordinator Marshall Kosloff and current Mighty Oregon Greek Coordinator Alex Titus.

The Elections Board states that Bowman was in violations of eight sections of the ASUO election rules. According to the ruling, violation of rule 7.13.1 was one of the biggest from Bowman.

“(Rule 7.13.1) was violated when Bowman and/or Kosloff told Tullis that (1) he would be “blacklisted” from the ASUO, (2) he would be “blacklisted” from Greek life, (3) either Bowman or former associates of Bowman would write negative articles in the Daily Emerald about Tullis, (4) his fraternity would not be able to charter if he continued to run, and (5) when Cheever told Tullis’s girlfriend that she would not be able to rush Gamma Phi Beta because of Tullis’s campaign. Separately, each is a serious form of intimidation.”

According to the ruling, Wu approached Grayson McCormick at his work and confronted him by saying that Tullis is running a “smear” campaign against Bowman. McCormick is the president of Delta Upsion, which was the fraternity that Tullis was a part of until he believed that the fraternity would suffer consequences from him running for president.

Follow Craig Garcia on Twitter @CraiGarcia

Grievance Ruling

Update: According to EMU Facilities, the system was set off by a smoke detector in third floor hallway by the Student Affairs IT office. No issues have been detected.

A fire alarm was triggered at the EMU on Wednesday at approximately 2:15 p.m.

UOPD Public Information Officer Kelly McIver said that it was a false alarm.

“I checked with dispatch and the recent fire alarm at the EMU was a false alarm,” McIver said. “Likely triggered by construction.”

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Mighty Oregon Campaign Manager Andrew Lubash filed a grievance against Ducks Like You senatorial candidate Juan Rivera on Wednesday, in regards to Rivera violating election rules section 3.4.2.

Section 3.4.2 states that “Signature gathering is not campaigning. Candidates may not post or advertise for signatures.”

On March 13, Rivera posted on his Facebook account asking for his friends to sign his candidacy signature form.

“Hello UO Friends! I need your help on two things and I hope you can help me! 1) I decided late in the race to run for Senate Seat 15, and I need signatures of people who support my candidacy (not a vote not at this time) just that I am a good person running for Senate Seat 15! Text me or message me and I can meet you around campus.”

“It was an honest mistake made by one of our slate members and we did everything could to fix it. The post was deleted within four hours of being posted,” Ducks Like You Campaign Manager Helena Schlegel said. ”This is a ridiculous attempt to create more ASUO campaign drama and we should recognize that we are students, and that we make mistakes.”

In the grievance, Lubash requests for Rivera to be removed from the ballot.

“We believe that all candidates should know what the rules are, especially since he’s a senatorial candidate,” Lubash said. “We go to great lengths to make sure our candidates are aware of the rules, and we would like to think Ducks Like You does the same.”

“We will fight to make sure Juan runs for office because he is a great leader that will make a great student advocate,” Schlegel said.

Rivera was unavailable for comment.

Alexandra Wallachy contributed to this post. Follow Craig Garcia and Alexandra Wallachy on Twitter @CraiGarcia and @wall2wallachy.

ASUO grievance filed against Juan Rivera