I fail to understand the reasoning behind the Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) rules regarding what counts as “active campaigning.” I do understand that they want the election process to be fair. I agree that there should be a designated start date to true active campaigning. Whether that be verbally promoting yourself, posting flyers on campus or making social media pages for your campaign, those should be restricted. But simply announcing that you have filed the forms and gathered the signatures needed to be on the ballot should in no way count as “active campaigning.”
However, I also feel troubled with how the Mustang News handled this story. The candidates should have known what the rules were for the first offense. It is in the ASI Election Code that, “Evidence of declaration to run in any way other than verbal will be grounds for disciplinary action by the ASI Recruitment & Development Committee.” Like I already said, I don’t agree with the rule. But it is the rule. I also know that the people who wrote the initial articles about the candidates knew this. It bothers me that a journalist would deliberately throw another Mustang under the bus like that.
The article that got everyone stirring was the one that followed that announced these fines. Updates to the article later announced that because of the new article, the candidates were once again in violation. While any sort of fine has yet to come down, it is rather infuriating that Mustang News would again put these student leaders in jeopardy. You can’t feign ignorance of the rules at this point.
That article hyperlinked to the ASI Election Code. You knew the rules, or at least you should have. I believe there was a way to report the news here without using the candidates’ names and putting them into another violation. And yes, I appreciate that you have since come out with another article that did not name the candidates and cause more fines. And yes, ASI should rescind the fines. But the second articles should not have used their names either. Mustang News gambled with the candidates’ money. If fines don’t come down, Mustang News wins. But if they do, the candidates are the ones who lose.
Mustang News has made some incredible strides this year in becoming a more integrated news group that keeps up with the way news is reported in the 21st century. I wish the way this story was handled wasn’t such a dark mark on a great year.