Cardinal Impact, the Student Government Association slate that has been embroiled in controversy since Monday, named a new treasurer and campaign manager and is officially nominated for election.
The slate chose junior photojournalism major Nick Turner to replace Cody Willis as candidate for treasurer after Willis resigned. It named Betsy Mills, graduate student and former SGA president, to replace campaign manager Kyle Ellis after his resignation. Mills is also the sister of Cardinal Impact vice presidential candidate Mandy Mills.
Willis and Ellis resigned three days after the Elections Board denied the slate's first nomination application. The 400 student signatures required with the application were unverifiable, Elections Chair Marco Pretell-Vazquez said.
Willis said he wrote in the addresses of some students who had signed with their permission. He said Ellis had advised him this was in compliance with the election rules.
Ellis said he did not tell Willis writing in information on the signatures would be OK.
Beth Cahill, the slate's presidential candidate, said this was an innocent miscommunication between the two.
"The whole controversy falls back to an innocent mistake," she said.
Ellis has said he should have looked over the signatures better before the slate turned in the application.
Cahill said Thursday that the slate members also should have reviewed the signatures.
"I think that all of us could have looked through the packet on our own and made sure that everything was as it should have been," she said. "Maybe that was our biggest mistake, not taking the opportunity to look through it."
She and Willis also said Willis came to the other slate members the day after their application was denied and said he thought the signature form he added to may have been the problem.
Willis said when he brought this issue up to Ellis, he told Willis to keep it quiet.
Cahill said she was not aware of this discussion between Ellis and Willis.
Ellis said Willis never mentioned the signatures might be the problem. Ellis also said he never told Willis to keep quiet about any issues.
Cahill said the reason the slate did not answer questions about problems was because the slate members wanted to fully understand all the issues before discussing them.
One reason the slate was not able to immediately understand the problems with the application, she said, was because it threw away the original packet immediately.
"In an effort to not get any of those signatures mixed up with our signatures and to get rid of bad karma, that packet was disposed of," she said.
Cahill said this delayed the process of understanding exactly what the slate did wrong, but she did not regret throwing the packet away.
She also said the slate members wanted to figure out the errors they made on their own rather than go to the Elections Board for clarification.
"That may have been our mistake," she said.
With a new candidate for treasurer now on the ballot and a new campaign manager at its side, Cahill said, the slate wants to move forward to the election.
"We're excited to show the student body that we are genuine and we are honest and hardworking," she said.
Cahill said the slate would work to be more open with students and the public than they were in the last few days.
"Every problem, every issue, every anything will be discussed," she said.
Cahill said seeing comments that say the slate should drop out because of the controversy has been difficult, but she said she thinks Cardinal Impact will fare well in the election.
"It's disappointing that even one student sees our slate this way, but it's expected and you have to let it roll off," she said. "You have to do your best to prove to the student body that it's not true."
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