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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 2015)
, Senior Boot Bag Price Includes Logo and Name (More logos available) Shop for Little Aggies to an Aggie Xmas: etsy.com/shop/aggiesandbows by Charlotte, Reveille’s Seamstress Store Location: A&B Self Storage 1701 N Earl Rudder Fwy Bryan, TX 979-778-2293 charboeg@yahoo. com Second Location: Craft and Antique Mall CS 2218 Texas Ave. South College StatioN, TX 979-255-8905 THIS WEEK walk in to have your free portrait taken for Texas A&M University's 2015 Aggieland yearbook. ALL CLASSES: 9 a.m-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday in MSC Suite L400. Feb. 23-March 12 will be your last chance. It's your yearbook. Be in it. TWO LOCATIONS TO DONATE AT! 1979) 315-4101 4223 Wellborn Rd Bryan, IX 77801 |979) 314-3672 ' 700 University Dr E., Ste 111 College Station. TX 77840 Jliiy $9.50/hr starting pay with regular raises No experience needed Work 12-39 hours per week Paid training & it aH* I sss! transportation NrvxRsmr Ragamala Dance Company ptwmonta Sacred Earth Ranee Ramaswamy & Aparna Ramaswamy Artistic Co-Directors Photo by: Hub Wilson Thursday, February 26, 201 5 7 PM in Texas A&M Rudder Theatre Tickets $5 Students $10 General Admission Available at the MSC Box Office Call 979.845.1234 For rifonrialjon. cal 979 847.2787 ♦ avpa@tamu edu ♦ acadefryarts.tamu.edu ♦ wrwrfaccbookcom/AVRftatTAIvtU ELECTIONS J-Court denies 2018 president’s appeal Tanner Garza — THE BATTALION By Lindsey Gawlik The Judicial Court of the Texas A&M Stu dent Government Asso ciation ruled Wednesday afternoon to uphold the disqualification of Class of 2018 presidential candidate Samuel O’Rourke. O’Rourke, a history freshman, will not serve as the Class of 2018 president, despite acquiring 78 percent of the vote. O’Rourke filed an appeal this weekend after learning he had been dis- qualified from running for not filing an expense report, despite spending no money on his campaign. Election rules require students to file an expense report or a null-expenditure statement. “All candidates must sub mit a finance report and all receipts from campaigning on the first day of voting by 5:00 pm,” according to the case summary read. “Candi dates failing to comply shall be disqualified the first day of voting at 5:00 p.m.” O’Rourke said he dis agrees with the ruling and felt he had a compelling ar gument. “I even gave an alterna tive to disqualification — I referred to Article 4 Section C, which lists a withheld fi nance report, which was the reason Ms. Douglas gave for disqualifying me, as a major offense, which, according to the regulations, can result in one of two ‘unreasonable’ penalties,” O’Rourke said. “A fine of up to 15 percent of the candidate’s total al lotted budget — $60 in my case — or disqualification.” O’Rourke said he hopes SGA better clarifies this rule and others in the future. Student Senate rejects ‘Fee Neutrality Bill’ By Nikita Redkar The Student Senate docket Wednesday included the Fee Neu trality Bill, which proposes the student body president election endorsement by The Battalion editorial board was an inappropriate use of student fees and advocates the outlet’s fee allocation should be stripped. Before it could reach committee, a vote was passed to postpone indefi nitely the bill. Academic Affairs Chair David Son- ka said no student fees should go to a news source that endorses a candidate. “Student fees were used to bol ster the campaign of one candidate in particular, and a student-funded news source should not be taking sides,” Sonka said. “We shouldn’t have our vote of dollars taken from us.” Rule and Regulations Chair Aaron Mitchell said he agreed The Battalion should not endorse candidates, but said the campus needs a student newspaper and proposed speaking with The Bat talion staff instead. “A daily paper exists to report daily news and to give students journalism experience,” Mitchell said. “We need Aggie journalists. There are t-sips out there running the world of journalism. It’s rude to ask to defund somebody’s organization.” Senator Joseph Hood said defund ing The Battalion would set a dangerous precedent of defunding other student organizations that endorse a candidate. “Many other organizations that en dorse candidates do receive student fees in one way or the other,” Hood said. “If this bill passes, it sends a message to the rest of the student body.” MORE AT TX.AG/BATT2 T,mLai —THE BATTALION Academic Affairs Chair David Sonka debates a bill Wednesday that advocated against The Battalion's student fee allotment. YELL LEADERS CONTINUED Student Senate rules and regulations chair Aaron Mitchell on behalf of Senior Yell Leader-elect Steven Lanz, argued Lanz deserved proper representation in the Judicial Court. Election regulations say a winning candidate — if the outcome of the appeal would strip their position — should be named a defendant. Because Lanier’s appeal failed to name Lanz, the counter appeal argued it should be dismissed. Tyler Boykin, general engineering sophomore and ju dicial advocate for Lanier, said there is no way to know if Lanz’s spot would change. The court will answer two questions. First, whether the appeal was improperly filed and should be thrown out. Second, whether a recount is merited. Emma Douglas, SGA election commissioner and a defendant in the initial appeal, said IT limitations would require a manual recount of the 11,000-plus ballots cast. “IT has said multiple times that it’s impossible to do on the computers so we’ll have to do it manually,” Douglas said. “So to follow this rule we’d have to do it manually and the recount would have a large margin of error, and huge liabilities with interpretation issues. It’s not 100 per cent verifiable, it’s not secure, there’s no way in ensuring that it’s 100 percent accurate.” Boykin said the IT department would, in fact, be able to count the three votes on each ballot, based on a con versation he and Lanier had with the department Tuesday. “They specifically told us they do have all the second place votes, they do have all the third place votes, they have all the fourth place, fifth place,” Boykin said. “In every single category they have the raw data — they have it compiled and it’s absolutely untrue that they wouldn’t be able to count that up.” Lanz said he does not want to win on an inaccurate case, and he only wants to make sure he was properly represented in the court. “I filed the appeal because I wanted to have a voice — I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to have a case against me that wasn’t going to allow me to have a voice to speak on my behalf,” Lanz said. “I understand and I recognize that the votes were the way they were, or weren’t tallied the way they were supposed to be tallied, as in they were just first place votes.” Lanier said the student body is misrepresented and ex pects this mistake to be made right. “If we were to decide to dismiss this one, and then just try to fix future races and leave this one be, I think then we are dismissing 66 percent of the student body’s voice,” Lanier said. A decision will be madev within 48 hours. SBP CONTINUED the Texas A&M Student Government Association Election Regulations.” The defense’s pre-trial stance largely centered on two arguments — that the appeal is inherently flawed by lump ing Benigno’s and Douglas’ allegations into one appeal, and that A&M’s Judicial Court has no jurisdiction to rule on traffic violations without a previous ruling by a Texas court of law. “Emma and I have been improperly lumped together,” Benigno said. “The case as it stands would not be due pro cess. To vote to move on with this case is a vote against due process.” The defense argued that two separate trials should be held to determine individual guilt before grouping the two together. Russo argued on Murtha’s behalf that the court must hear the case to establish consistency and legitimacy within SGA, referencing previous fines levied against former stu dent body president candidate Isaiah Tsau. Tsau was fined $200 and $300, respectively, by the elec tion commission for two instances of campaigning in off- limit areas. “The issue is if the same standards were applied in a previous case adjudicated by the election commission, if the election commission were to be consistent, that would place the defendant over budget,” Russo said. “That is why we filed a complaint against both parties.” Russo also referenced J-Court appeal regulations, which state the plaintiff may be required to name any or all de fendants in the case. To further challenge the case’s procedural workings, Be nigno’s defense argued the court does not have original jurisdiction over the case on the grounds that any state or local convictions were never handed down in a state court of law. Citing Article V of the Texas Constitution, the defense stated that, for misdemeanor cases punishable by fine only, original jurisdiction lies with the Justice of the Peace Court, leaving SGA fundamentally incapable of determining guilt. To rebut this claim, the plaintiff’s counsel argued a con viction is not necessary to show a violation of the rules, cit ing photographic evidence of Benigno actively campaign ing in off-limits areas. “Ignoring state penal code, this still has to be heard for the same reasons the O’Rourke case was heard,” econom ics senior Clayton Cromer said on Murtha’s behalf. “They broke the rules that say you can’t hold campaign materials off campus.” Over $65,000 in weekly cash prizes ! Qm‘< food si Qml ?m& & BT8E0I Cll^ fiftll 1EN0L.OS1ED Security - Unlimited Pul Tabs & Event Tabs NON-SMOKING Every Thursday Is AGGIE NIGHT? m Price Paper & 2 FRE£ AsfoiS Sseeragas' SECTION!! $10.09 -1/2 Price FortuNet Electronics (%:v wi pruts TveseSay. Thwsday, Sateifey S SurxSay 1805 Briarcrest Drive in Bryan Across from Bryan High Doors Open At 5:00 pm, 7 Days A Week (979)776-0999 www.brazosbingo.com Brazos Bingo supports the following charities: Brazos Valley Council on Alcohol and Substance Abuse. Bubba Moore Memorial Group, Inc. College Station Professional Firefighters Association Texas Local 4SI I, St Joseph Catholic Church, St. Joseph Catholic School and Scottys House Brazos Valley Child Advocacy Center, Inc. batt rr Voce or Texas A Mark Dore, Editor in Chief Aimee Breaux, Managing Editor Jennifer Reiley, Asst. Managing Editor Lindsey Gawlik, News Editor Samantha King, Asst. News Editor Katy Stapp, Asst. News Editor John Rangel, SciTech Editor Katie Canales, Life & Arts Editor Carter Karels, Sports Editor Shelby Knowles, Photo Editor Allison Bradshaw, Asst. Photo Editor Meredith Collier, Page Designer Claire Shepherd, Page Designer THE BATTALION is published daily, Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer session (except University holidays and exam periods) at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. Offices are in Suite L400 of the Memorial Student Center. News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at Texas A&M University in Student Media, a unit of the Division of Student Affairs. Newsroom phone: 979-845-3315; E-mail: editor@thebatt.com; website: http:// www.thebattcom. Advertising: Publication of advertising does not imply sponsorshipor endorsement by The Battalion. For campus, local, and national display advertising, call 979- 845-2687. For classified advertising, call 979-845-0569. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Email: battads@thebatt.com. Subscriptions^ part of the University Advancement Fee entitles each Texas A&M student to pick up a single copy of The Battalion. First copy free, additional copies $1. \ *