Both BecomingTU and RiseTU suspended from campaigning

Updated at 3:15 p.m. on April 3

Temple Student Government’s Ethics Board suspended both BecomingTU and RiseTU from campaigning on Wednesday, after the candidate teams each violated the Elections Code twice.

RiseTU, one of the teams running to control the Executive Branch during the 2019-20 academic year, first received a warning because Kenya Overton, RiseTU’s deputy campaign strategist, advocated for the team in an official group chat for TSG’s Parliament on Tuesday. The team then missed a mandatory meeting with Morrease Leftwich, chief judge of TSG’s Ethics Board, on Wednesday morning.

BecomingTU violated Elections Code twice, the first time by posting an Instagram photo of Kaya Jones, its candidate for vice president of external affairs, at TSG’s town hall meeting with BecomingTU’s campaign account tagged on March 25. This violated an Ethics Board rule that candidates cannot use official TSG spaces and social media accounts to advertise their campaigns.

The second violation involved a BecomingTU campaign member removing Alex Rosenberg’s name from TSG’s official site on March 20. Rosenberg is junior class representative in Parliament and RiseTU’s vice presidential candidate of external affairs. It was not immediately clear who removed Rosenberg’s name, but there are multiple members of BecomingTU who hold positions in IgniteTU, TSG’s current administration.

As a result, both teams cannot campaign for the rest of elections, which end at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday. The winning team will be announced on Thursday.

The first of RiseTU’s violations was against TSG’s Elections Code because candidates are not permitted to use official TSG channels to advertise their campaigns, according to a release from the Ethics Board. Second, all Parliament and executive campaigns were required to meet with Leftwich by Wednesday to discuss changes recently made to TSG’s Constitution.

On Monday, the Ethics Board approved changes to Parliament in the Constitution, including reducing the number of representatives from 37 to 30, and giving Parliament more power to approve all TSG activity, including that of the Executive Branch, Emanuel Wilkerson, an at-large representative in Parliament, told The Temple News.

Campaigns were notified of the mandatory meeting on March 22, according to a release by the Ethics Board announcing the team’s suspension. Leftwich said Wednesday morning’s meeting  was the second one RiseTU missed after the team asked to reschedule twice.

“As the Elections Commissioner and drafter of the Elections Code, it is my obligation to ensure that each campaign team is in compliance with the Elections Code,” Rofiat Oseni, TSG’s Elections Commissioner, wrote in the release. “Furthermore, it is my duty to ensure that action is taken when violations occur.”

RiseTU’s and BecomingTU’s directors of communications did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

UPDATE: This article was updated to reflect that BecomingTU was also suspended from campaigning.

CORRECTION: This article was corrected to reflect the accurate date of TSG’s last town hall, and that Jones’ photo was posted with BecomingTU mentioned.