[HSU-CoordBoardInternal] Fwd: HSU Failing - Broken Voting System and What's Next

[coordboard at hampshire.edu]

Hey guys, forwarding this because it wasn't sent to coordboard  
internal. At large people haven't seen it yet


I'm going to respond from my personal adress as an atlarge member.

-Ethan
----- Forwarded message from xat12 at hampshire.edu -----
    Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 11:20:05 -0400
    From: xat12 at hampshire.edu
Subject: HSU Failing - Broken Voting System and What's Next
      To: Coordinating Board <coordboard at hampshire.edu>, HSU Budget  
Policy <budgetpolicyhsu at hampshire.edu>, HSU Fund  
<hsufundcom at hampshire.edu>, HSU Academics  
<academicshsu at hampshire.edu>, HSU Leadership  
<leadershiphsu at hampshire.edu>, HSU Community  
<communityhsu at hampshire.edu>, HSU Experience  
<experiencehsu at hampshire.edu>, Committee of Ten  
<committee10 at hampshire.edu>
      Cc: Josiah S Litant <jlitant at hampshire.edu>, Gardiner Brown  
<ggb11 at hampshire.edu>, Elizabeth Gooen <ejg12 at hampshire.edu>, Dina  
Spanbock <drs09 at hampshire.edu>, Jesse Ide <jci12 at hampshire.edu>,  
Nicole Roczey <nkr13 at hampshire.edu>

Dear HSU groups, Re-Rad Signers, people who I believe care about the  
structure and all of us involved in this,

I opened my e-mail today to see the results of the Town Meeting  
voting, and I am appalled at the fact that the elections were allowed  
to continue. As many of you may be fully aware of, the voting system  
was unarguably broken. Fraudulent elections are invalid elections.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's my summary. After  
leaving Coordinating Board, I heard rumors on how if you logged in  
through a private browser, you could vote through our Qualtrics  
elections multiple times. Then I heard that I shouldn't worry, because  
it got handled. So, I waited until yesterday night to test this. I  
managed to vote 2 additional times using Firefox private browser for  
Town Meeting. This is not okay. Regardless if you managed to see what  
votes were 'invalid', it is Unacceptable that these elections go  
through.

Adding to this voting fiasco, the way HSU handled the Hype Committee  
crisis this week was far from okay; I have yet to read/hear any  
official response. Not to mention taking no stance with the regards to  
the Prescott substance incident. And I have still to really see an  
attempt at advertising for more members.

It's obvious that the system is failing. Town Meeting's First  
Elections, the CENTER of the system, failed. 3 members have dropped  
out of CoordBoard, to of 2 having been deeply involved in  
restructuring process last year. Scope Groups are STILL lacking  
membership. Not to mention the fact that we NEVER addressed the  
question of an inclusive governance structure; we talked about having  
seats assigned to certain student identities on campus, but never got  
to it. And we never concluded on the stipend question. No one is  
comfortable with what's going on and frustration is everywhere. I am  
sure that the system is heading to shutdown (yes, I used the 's' word)  
if we don't act soon.

So, here's what I propose. First, SOMEONE needs to apologize and  
re-run the elections. I care about our image and credibility, but if  
this doesn't happen, trust me, I will flip tables and it will be  
worse. I cannot allow, as a Hampshire student and someone involved in  
HSU, for such important decisions to be made like this. I'll wait  
until next Tuesday before taking any action.

Then, we need to get together (everyone who wants to see this thing  
work again as well as students who might want to get involved still)  
check-in and improve. Make decisions about our structure and fix it. I  
don't want to say that HSU has fallen, but I really think that it's at  
tipping point right now. It's okay that this happened. When we were  
making this thing last year, we *knew* that it was a pilot, and that  
it might collapse and explode. So yes, now to pick up the pieces.

But I don't know how to go about doing this. I'd have no problem in  
running this HSU revisiting thing, but I don't feel empowered to do  
so. Perhaps it should be handled by the Accountability body (formerly  
Committee of 10) with the approval of Coordinating Board.

Sending positive energy,
Xavier A. Torres de Janon

----- End forwarded message -----