By not swearing members in, Congress is negligent

TO THE EDITOR:

There is no reason that two members of Congress and an entire section of the student body deserve to be disenfranchised for circumstances out of their control. Not allowing Adam Jutha and Evan Ross, two South Campus representatives in Student Congress, to vote is simply illegal and needs to be changed immediately.

Congress Speaker Joe Levin-Manning claims that he did not swear in these representatives because of outstanding lawsuits regarding the legitimacy of the special election. This is completely absurd considering that on Nov. 10, the date of the first full congress meeting, there were no lawsuits filed.

Furthermore, if there had been a lawsuit filed against the Board of Elections and Congress wanted to avoid controversy, no new members should have been sworn in. South Campus was not the only district that could have been affected by the randomization issue.

It makes no sense to target and punish two members on no grounds.

Quite frankly, one basic principle of governance has been ignored. Even if there was a lawsuit open on Nov. 10, and even if South Campus was the only district affected (which it was not), the BOE is innocent until proven guilty and South Campus deserves to be represented in Congress.



Deanna Santoro
District 4 representative Student Congress