Juniors elect Canner pres.

and CHARLES ORNSTEIN In an election marked by closed doors and closed mouths, College junior Matthew Canner was elected president of the Class of 1994, beating College junior Laura Lieberman in yesterday's run-off election. But Canner's victory was overshadowed by apparent inconsistencies of disqualification -- one candidate was ruled ineligible after being pictured in The Daily Pennsylvanian, while another was allowed to remain in the election despite also being pictured in the DP. College junior Liz Goldman was disqualified from the vice presidential race after her photograph appeared in the DP on Friday. But College junior Laura Lieberman remained in the presidential race even though a similar photo of her appeared in yesterday's newspaper. Under the board's policy, all candidates are responsible for publicity they receive and can be ruled ineligible if they are quoted in the DP. All decisions are left to the board, which is free to interpret each grievance on a case-by-case basis. In a closed-door meeting last night, two grievances were addressed. One was against Canner because his name was mentioned in a DP editorial and the other was against Lieberman because her picture ran in yesterday's issues of the paper. Neither presidential candidate was disqualified from the race, but Goldman was not reinstated. "I see absolutely no difference between my picture being put in the paper and Laura's picture being put in the paper," Goldman said. "What's the difference in the circumstances?" Members of the current Senior Class Board refused to comment on their handling of the grievances, referring to a public statement which would be released "as soon as possible," Senior Class Board Treasurer Brooke Hayes said last night. "We want our own public statement so [the DP doesn't] twist it around," Hayes said. Hayes would not comment on the seeming inconsistencies in disqualifications, or explain why the meeting was held behind closed doors. But Nominations and Elections Committee Chairperson Michael Monson said he disapproves of closed-door meetings in general. "As a general policy, I think all grievance hearings should be in public," Monson said. "There is no reason for it to be behind closed doors. If it is behind closed doors, you have to kind of do a little wondering." But, Monson added, "We cannot tell the senior class what to do, nor would we ever dream to." Monson would not comment on the apparent discrepancies, but said that according to NEC regulations, "candidates are not held responsible for events and actions that are completely beyond their scope of intervention." "We would never dream of telling the DP what to do," Monson said. "Even if we try, [it] wouldn't listen. It's a futile effort." Undergraduate Assembly Vice Chairperson Scott Sher, who called the elections "a travesty," said last night that the UA would make recommendations, but most likely would not take action against the Senior Class Board as far as revoking its funding. But Sher did say that the election results were unfair. "Let's let the elections be decided in the booth rather than a whole bunch of people in a stuffy room," Sher said. Other new officers announced yesterday were Vice President Robbyn Leventhal; Secretary Suzanne Berman; and College Representatives Debbie Algazy and Julia Rose. The turnout for the runoff election was half the total for the primaries, Hayes said, which he attributed to yesterday's poor weather. Lieberman refused to comment on the election.

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