Sr. Class Board explains election decision

The Senior Class Board issued a statement Tuesday night to explain their decision not to disqualify College junior Loren Mendell from Monday's runoff elections for the Class of 1995's Senior Class Board. Mendell received enough votes in the runoff to defeat Wharton junior Jason Diaz, the current Junior Class Board president. Before the results were announced Monday night, the current Senior Class Board spent five hours debating a grievance filed against Mendell by Diaz's campaign manager. The charge was filed five minutes before the 7 p.m. deadline. The charge accused Mendell of violating section 2c of the Senior Class Board election code which states: "No other printed publicity is permitted regarding your candidacy in the election," besides those indicated in earlier sections of the code. Diaz said last night he did not file the grievance against his fellow Sigma Chi fraternity brother, adding that he was not in favor of filing the complaint, even after it was made official. "I want to clarify the fact that I didn't file the grievance," he said. "It was filed by a third party, a friend." According to the Senior Class Board's statement, the grievance charged Mendell with violating the code by leaving loose-leaf paper notes at "various fraternity, sorority and off-campus houses." "Under my interpretation of the code, [Mendell's actions] were against it," Diaz said. "But I was going by the code and Loren was going by what the advisor Scott Reikofski was saying. "There was no idea who had authority over the rules," he added. Mendell answered the complaint against him by saying that Senior Class Board members told him at the March 22 candidates' meeting that these notes were permissible, the statement said. "The Senior Class Board found that I didn't violate it," Mendell said last night. "The problem was that Jason interpreted it differently, and there were no clear-cut guidelines. I'm happy with the results and I think it was very fair." Senior Class Board President Matthew Canner said Monday night that the Board did not finish discussing the situation until midnight because "we wanted to deliberate it thoroughly since it was such an important decision." "Both sides presented their respective cases to the entire Senior Class Board of 1994," the statement states. "In a closed meeting, after much concerned deliberation, the Class Board of 1994 decided that the papers in question were not printed material available to the public, but reminders left by a campaigning candidate for the runoff election." The 10 board members who signed the statement also said they "regret that this election did not run as smoothly as [they] hoped it would." Mendell said he is "really excited" about winning the election. "I am happy to have the opportunity to serve the senior class this year," he said. "We've already started having meetings and planning events like Hey Day." Diaz said he advocated a "revamping" of the election code, especially since problems have occurred in the past. Last year, The Daily Pennsylvanian ran photographs of two of the Senior Class Board candidates. One was disqualified as a result, but the other was not.