The endorsements you are about to read are illegal according to the Elections and Credentials Committee. Generation was not permitted by SA to write endorsements this year.

Don’t laugh, I’m serious.

Due to an election rule enforced for the first time this year, we would have had to mail E&C Chair Adeela Khan a letter stating our intent to endorse candidates. After several conversations with Khan—as well as SBI President Hyder Hussain and SA President Viqar Hussain—Generation is no closer to knowing the details of when and why the rule was imposed.

The law, which the SA E&C rules say is punishable by fines and/or community service, is unconstitutional. To disallow candidates to speak to an independent news source is illegal under the first amendment of the U.S. constitution.

The only reason Generation has an issue out right now at all, is because the candidates wanted their platforms to be heard badly enough to accept the 20 community service hours Khan has promised them individually. For that, we are thankful.

In a discussion late Friday, Khan indicated that a Generation endorsement was out of the question, but that the magazine could write its opinions about individual candidates as long as the word “endorsement” was absent. Khan stressed that this was her first year as the appointed Elections and Credentials chair, and said she wanted to play by the book.

So she sent all of the candidates involved with the election an email. A selection: “I informed all of you that Generation had not contacted me and therefore they are not permitted to endorse any candidate. According to the rules, those of you who went to the endorsement, have participated in an illegal endorsement and are each individually subject to 20 hours of community service as it CLEARLY states in the elections rules and regulations.”

This would imply that the E&C chair has some sort of power to prosecute a student under SA penal law (see: scare tactics).

The Spectrum and Generation offer the only information available for a student who is not involved in clubs. There were no publicized speeches for the general public, nor was there a single debate between the candidates. Visions, the SA magazine, did not mention the elections or the candidates running. Most, if not all, endorsements took place in the third floor assembly room, and were open to questions for clubs only. None of them were listed on the SA website.

The SA website boasts the biography of only one party, assumedly because they were the only party who submitted them before the March 18 deadline, over a week before the election. The E&C committee, in a release to candidates, warned them about getting their biographies in on time. “No exceptions,” the flier said in bold print.

To believe that this is only punishing the candidates undermines the reason all these rules exist in the first place: to guarantee a fair election for the students. Having only one party’s biography on the SA website—one of the most physical forums the organization has—does the greatest disservice to the very students who pay for it in the first place. A student who sees only one party represented on the website isn’t likely to simply vote for that party, he’s likely to change his mind about voting in the first place.

Penalizing the candidates for speaking to a student magazine hurts the students. The two campus publications seem to be the only student groups that care if you vote or not—that care about the future of the university. If the Elections Committee is acting with student needs at heart, they ought to consider encouraging public dialogue, not excluding it. Better yet, as an elections committee, they could find a way to get students to vote.

We here in the Generation newsroom, long into the dark, dark night this Saturday, aren’t writing this for ourselves, nor are we writing it to piss anybody off. We stayed here all week interviewing candidates and worrying about elections officials because we think that our SA can make a difference. All of the candidates are strong individuals with skills in the Student Association they’ve all helped to build. We are humbled by their words and by their compassion.

Please, take the time to read our interviews with the candidates, a group of which will be the future of your Student Association. Then, take the time to vote for them in the Student Union this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Last year, the election was won by ten votes.

In a 30-second phone call Saturday night, Khan called to let us know the status of our endorsement request. “The committee decided not to allow your endorsements. So you just do what you’ve gotta do, and we’ll take it from there.”

I smiled and I hung up, and thought, “We’re one step ahead of you.”

This issue, like all of our issues, is dedicated to you.