Student Government Association’s now former parliamentarian said he is the creator of the anonymous Twitter account that the elections board charged Cardinal United members for on Tuesday.
Chad Griewank, a presidential candidate in the 2012 SGA executive board election, said in a news release that he worked alone and no slate or campaign members were involved in the offensive tweets that attacked an SGA senator.
Cardinal United staff members Con Sullivan and Jason Pickell were accused Tuesday night of creating the anonymous Twitter account and the cyber bullying that followed. Cardinal United was fined $519 for the incident by the elections board. Following Griewank’s announcement, the elections board rescinded the violation and attached fee around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Cardinal United presidential candidate Zeyne Guzeldereli said the slate did not receive any information about what evidence the elections board had against them.
“Absolutely none, not even verbal confirmation,” he said. “They told us that they weren’t even able to talk about it, and I think that is completely rude, especially when you’re being accused of something. Fair trial. Fair representation of all of the facts.”
Sullivan and Pickell were also banned from working in any way with executive board slates’ campaigns, being part of senate or running for a higher position such as executive board, as well as attending any campaign or SGA-related events through the 2013-14 academic school year.
Thurman said the elections board realized Wednesday that according to revisions in the SGA bylaws, removing the senators from any part of SGA other than elections-related events and duties is out of its power.
Sullivan said the tweets from @BSUSGAElections began as fact checking but then became offensive and pointed toward one senator in particular.
“[I was accused of] sexual harassment really; the tweet that they referenced was defaming to the person it was attacking,” he said.
Griewank said his comments would not expand on the news release on Wednesday night.
Elections board chair Kevin Thurman said he would not release what the evidence was to the press or even the slate.
“They are aware of what the violation was,” he said. “How they interpret things and the way the elections board interprets things is going to vary.”
After the elections board rescinded the violation and fine, Thurman said the evidence the board had against Cardinal United was “a moot point.” He said the elections board deals with issues the same way the university deals with suspensions, which is to evaluate and decide what circumstance seems the most plausible
“It’s not innocent until proven guilty – this isn’t a U.S. court of law,” he said.
Pickell said he thinks the elections board handled its investigation of the anonymous Twitter account poorly.
“I believe that there needs to be an investigation done in how they handled it and what exactly happened during that meeting, and why they thought of Con and I in the first place,” he said.
Guzeldereli said now that the violation has been rescinded, he is still worried about the reputations of the two affected, especially Pickell who is a freshman and still has about three years of schooling left at Ball State.
“I’m personally a little upset that they worked very quickly to bring down the accusation and now it just kind of seems they don’t have any interest in working in the same rapid pace to try to protect our names now that we have been falsely accused and they have admitted it,” he said.
The sanctions also required Guzeldereli to make a formal apology during senate on Wednesday for the actions he and his staff members were accused of. Guzeldereli denied all allegations and ended his apology by directing his speech to the person behind the Twitter account, who was not known at the time.
“Come forward,” he said. “Do not hide behind a fake Twitter handle because your actions have repercussions and those repercussions are being handed down to innocent people.”
Within minutes after Guzeldereli’s speech, Thurman received new information concerning the Twitter account, and the investigation was reopened.
Griewank sent a news release around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, which he said was the first time his actions and involvement with the Twitter account were made public.
Thurman apologized on behalf of the elections board for any damage that was caused by its allegations, but he said it was the right decision based on the evidence at the time.
“With the manner that the elections board was able to act swiftly and decisively with removing the sanctions,” Thurman said, “we hope there are little lingering effects.”
