Engineering freshman Dipal Patel has been campaigning for a UA position this week with posters reading, "Because nobody else's name rhymes with people ... Vote Dipal."
Yesterday, however, several posters reading, "Because no one else rhymes with Menstrual ... Vote Dipal" appeared alongside campaign posters on Locust Walk.
"I'm just shocked by it," Patel said. "I honestly don't know why someone would do that or take the time to do that. We're trying to help the student body."
Patel is one of several Undergraduate Assembly candidates who were victimized by offensive posters hung along Locust Walk yesterday.
One poster mocking College junior Amy Gartenlaub's slogan "Stop Chasing Amy, she's still here" allegedly read, "Stop Chasing Amy ... She has gonorrhea."
Another poster showed a series of photos of John F. Kennedy's assassination that read, "That'll teach him to be soft on Communism. Vote David Kwon."
Kwon, a Wharton freshman, said he had no knowledge of the posters.
"It pisses me off," Kwon said. "I just thought it was an immature thing to do."
The 38th Street Bridge saw a few scattered posters with pictures of Terri Schiavo that read, "It's about time Terri was put to sleep."
A poster hung in the same location showed a picture of UA candidate and College sophomore Georgiana Cavendish with three random people and the outlines of a group of people under the headline, "Of the 19 veterans pictured with Georgianna, only THREE actually support her for UA. 12 now state Georgianna is 'UNFIT to be UA Rep.'"
The bottom of the sign read, "Paid for by UA Veterans for Truth."
Several UA candidates did not see the objective of the anonymous acts.
"I would like to invite whoever is writing these posters to run for UA and see what they could do for students at Penn," Gartenlaub said.
Patel expressed concern that the posters may have a negative effect on candidates involved in close races.
Nominations & Elections Committee officials sent out an e-mail to candidates around 9 last night asking them to come forward if they were responsible for the offensive material.
No one came forward, at which point NEC officials said they assumed that the posters were part of a prank.
The NEC has no regulations against negative campaigning.
UA candidates who were victimized by the offensive posters said they do not believe the posters were created by a fellow campaigner.
"It seems like everyone who is running is pretty genuine," Kwon said. "I don't think it was someone I know."
Fourth-year Religious Studies graduate student Todd Krulak said he was walking down Locust Walk when he saw the posters.
"I was taken aback, and other people who passed it seemed to be as well," Krulak said, noting that the Schiavo poster was particularly shocking.
