This year's Student Association elections have been filled with questionable campaign tactics, and as the elections came to a close on Thursday, both the UB Advocates and Progress party continued to level allegations of dirty politics.
Following Tuesday's reports of an e-mail from Viqar Hussain that was sent to the UB athletes listserv, Progress party candidates have alleged that the UB Advocates were "dorm-storming," or distributing campaign flyers throughout the residence halls and slipping them underneath dorm room doors.
If UB Advocates did personally slip flyers into dorm rooms, that would be a violation of Residence Halls policy.
"Tuesday I got out of the shower and saw the flyers underneath my residents' doors, and they were under my door," said Ashonte Stills, a junior academic assistant and Progress candidate for SUNY SA. "There were also flyers all over the tables in the lounges."
The Spectrum found parts of Ellicott littered with UB Advocates flyers, and Hussain confirmed that leaflets promoting his party were distributed in the dorms, but he maintains that UB Advocates got permission from University Residence Halls and Apartments.
"We went to the RHA hall directors, and they approved and stamped the flyer," Hussain said. "As far as I knew, we were good from that point on. They just said you have to have every flyer stamped. We have permission to have that flyer anywhere in that dorm, as far as we knew, because RHA gave us that permission."
Mary Gallivan, assistant director for Residential Life, said the UB Advocates flyer was approved for posting in the dorms, but not in residential areas.
"We approved them to be posted on the first floor," Gallivan said. "If they wanted them posted on individual floors, then they needed to provide enough copies for the (resident advisors) and they would then post them on their individual sleeping floors."
While UB Advocates received permission to post those flyers on the first floor of the dorms, Gallivan said no organizations are allowed to participate in dorm-storming.
"That is not allowed. We don't allow sororities, fraternities, restaurants, even athletics. None of those people are allowed in residence halls on sleeping floors to promote their activities," she said. "We don't allow dorm-storming in any of the residence halls. The RAs aren't even allowed to do this."
Election rules state that any candidate that gets an exception to RH&A posting guidelines must inform the Election and Credentials committee, which both parties did, according to committee chair Avneet Jacob.
The UB Advocates also alleged that the Progress party participated in dorm-storming, but The Spectrum found no evidence to uphold that claim.
As for the e-mail sent to the UB athletes listserv, Hussain maintains his innocence.
"I e-mailed Kellie Peiper, the student-athlete services coordinator, and asked her to print it out and hand it to members of the Student Athletes Activities Council," Hussain said. "I think it was just a miscommunication. I'm not worried, though, I know it's not that big of a deal."
UB Advocates alleged that the Progress party also used a listserv, however the e-mail was an internal fraternity e-mail that was not sent to a listserv, casting doubt as to whether this was an actual campaign violation.
Hussain said these allegations are an unfortunate side effect of the parties' efforts to garner votes.
"The only way the other party can get the votes is through negative publicity," he said. "That's exactly what I'm not trying to do."
