The Associated Student Government election finally came to an end May 11, a week after the votes were originally reported to be made official Dean of Student Affairs Denise Whisenhunt sent out an email to ASG students making the original vote count official.
Fears that some ASG candidates had of another student vote or even another election were put to rest.
Abdulkadir Ahmed, Christopher Conyers’ opposition in the office of vice president, and David Campbell received the email from Whisenhunt telling them the official outcome of the election.
“I won, it’s official” Campbell commented. “I’m ready to get things started.”
The ASG election was riddled with reports of pranks including a Craigslist ad soliciting for sex with personal information and large orders for food delivered to an ASG candidate’s house.
Conyers sent a letter to City Times, published in the paper’s previous issue, with his position on pre and post election events. The letter went into detail as to why he felt he must “respectfully resign,” after numerous issues accumulated to what Conyers referred to as “almost like a mini series.”
“The pranks should have been dealt with by Student Affairs as soon as they were heard about” Conyers noted. “Because of the City Times’ focus on the pranks and the link to ASG, the story went to Channel 10 News.”
“Campbell had nothing to do with the pranks, nor did I or anyone who won” Conyers said in his letter.
In an earlier interview, Campbell had also commented that he too felt ” he was independent of the whole situation.but was still being punished for it.”
Conyers’ letter continued with his report of Whisenhunt’s suspension announcement on April 30 at an ASG meeting.
“Today the Dean (Whisenhunt) suspended the results of the election pending this investigation with no further details as per the district. They (would) accept further complaints until May 4.”
Conyers response to that news was one of confusion. “Instead of dealing with the issues, let’s open up the floor and get some more” Conyers said.
After Conyers’ resignation, the only unfinished business in the election process left to resolve would be if Abdulkadir Ahmed, Conyers’ vice president opposition, would automatically default into the vice president seat now vacant.
“Denise verified to me that I was going to be the vice president of ASG” Ahmed said. “She also wanted to let me know that I would be holding (flags) at the graduation ceremony with (Campbell).”
The decision comes just in time for ASG to get started on next year’s agenda. The newly appointed candidates will start their positions at ASG in June.
