TO THE EDITOR:
Online over the weekend and in Monday’s print edition, The Daily Tar Heel published updates relating to a recent Board of Election decision. Multiple times they refer to the plaintiff as the Ethics Committee chairperson of Student Congress. In this way, they tie the accusation against the Joe Nail campaign to Student Congress. Because of these ties, I feel I have to make clear that Student Congress, as an entity, is not allowed to endorse a candidate or engage in an activity that benefits or does not benefit one candidate over another.
The Ethics Committee’s job is not to file complaints about campaigns or engage in activity outside the realm of Congress but rather to ensure that all Congress members are following the rules and procedures of Congress. They are purely an internal check on congressional representatives’ actions. In this manner, the Ethics Committee chair position has nothing to do with the accusations but were instead the actions of a member of the Matthew McKnight campaign against the Nail campaign.
W. Cole Simons
Speaker, Student Congress
