Newspaper Page Text
VOL. 71, NO. 9 MOREHOUSE COLLEGE; ATLANTA, GEORGIA Monday April 12, 1999
IN CAMPUS NEWS
The latest episodes and
melodramas of the 1999
elections.*
Page 2
Maroon
Electoral confusion leads to poll do-over
Philip Asbury/Staff
Students gathered to voice their dissatisfaction with the administration Wednesday, April
8. Jonathan Hill, a member the Elections Committee reads the committee's letter addressing
the election issues thus far.
Howard Franklin
Campus News Editor
The events occuring
before, during, and after the
student government elections
will, for the first ime in
history, send students back to
the polls on Wednesday, April
13.
The Elections Committee,
chaired by sociology major
Marcus Downs, released a
stringent set of guidelines for
potential candidates which
would lead to be the crux of
electoral confusion.
The first set of rules
established controlled the
process for obtaining and
fulfilling candidacy petitions.
The second set controlled the
actual campaigning
procedures leading up to
voting day.
The guidelines regulated
everything from campaign
spending caps to the size,
color and location of flyers.
All the necessary
information was made
available to students who
were interested in pursuing
an elected position via the
Office of Student Services.
This year, the Election
Committee disqualified a
number of candidates,
including one for the office of
student government
president, Jason Smoot. The
disqualifications were based
on the students' violations of
the first set of rules.
Smoot and others
initially violated the petition
rules by either allowing
signatures without social
security numbers or
changing the office they
intended to pursue, without
notifying the committee.
Dean Eddie Gaffney
overruled the committee's
decision and deemed its
standards too harsh before
re-qualifying Smoot and
Continued on page 3
Who’s in charge here?
Faraji Whalen
Co-Editor in Chief
As the year winds down and election
season goes through yet another tedious
process, and an unusually controversial
elections policy, current SGA president Chris
Jones has come under fire for his job as the
leading student in the administration. Rumors
that Jones has failed to provide adequate
leadership, mismanaged funds, and of late,
deserted his office have sullied the SGA's
reputation.
Problems regarding the SGA are nothing
new, as past administrations have often come
under fire for a variety of reasons. This year's
administration got off to a controversial start
as then Chief of Staff Scott Davis resigned just
weeks before homecoming, due to differences
with the administration.
Despite this setback, Homecoming was
an overwhelming success. This year's SGA
also had to get over a crippling budget
cutback, which many in the administration
blame on previous administrations' financial
misallocation of funds, particularly Antonio
Johnson's infamously corrupt syndicate.
"Chris got off to a bad start because he
said he was going to make decisions
democratically, but when it came to choosing
a chief of staff, he went over everyone's head
and appointed Scott, even though almost
everyone opposed that decision," said Antoy
Bell, the SGA treasurer. According to Bell,
Jones's "doubletalk" created an air of distrust
in the office, which carried over to the
everyday affairs of the SGA. Jones has also
come under fire for alienating students and
SG Amembers with religious rhetoric. "Chris
is very religious, and has gotten more
religious through the year. That kind of came
out in that things that were historically done
by the SGA were no longer condoned, and
Continued on page 3
Crown forum contest winners
On Thursday, March 25 Dr. Massey hosted a luncheon in the
Davidson House for students who entered in the President's Crown
Forum Contest, (above) Dr. Massey presents Charles W. Davidson,
Jr. with a certificate and a check for $400 for submitting the best
idea for improving student decorum. Olalekan A. Bashua submitted
the best idea for improving the scanning process and was given a
$200 cash prize.