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

[xat12 at hampshire.edu]

Hi Ethan,

First off, I find it inappropriate that you CC'd the CoordBoardInfo  
listserv. This is unnecessary.

Could you please elaborate on how the voting flaws were fixed? Even if  
they were, I still have huge issues with the results. I simply cannot  
trust them given the flaws in the voting system. How do I know that  
the results are real if I could vote Three times? I am almost certain  
that if I feel this way, I am not alone.

I have not attended the meetings, Ethan, but I have talked with  
members of CoordBoard, Josiah and other people involved in HSU, and  
none of them are comfortable with the current status of this system.  
It's foolish of us to assert that it's all good. Three members left  
Coordinating Board. FundCom has 4-5 members. Two Scope Groups have yet  
to be fully launched. CoordBoard is making decisions that were not  
supposed to be made by it. I have yet to receive any single e-mail  
signed by HSU in any way in regards to issues on campus. I saw no  
postering for our last Town Meeting. I have seen no postering for any  
Scope Group.

The fact that this pressing issue cannot be addressed by next Tuesday  
speaks to the problems in the system. The voting results of a  
fraudulent election *were shared*. I have no doubt in my mind that  
next week, people in this college will start taking steps to making  
sure that the voting results are institutionalized. The third member  
of the Strategic Planning Committee was also elected through this  
process; if HSU does not take a stance against this alleged democratic  
process, this person will start meeting with the Committee. This is  
not okay.

I am participating in the system, Ethan, by trying to make it  
accountable. I will not allow the SAF Endowment to be opened, a vast  
amount of money being transferred to the Barn, through a voting  
process that was broken.

Best,
Xavier A. Torres de Janon


Quoting Ethan Warshow <erw11 at hampshire.edu>:

> Xavier,
>
> This message is ridiculous. There's no other way to say it.
> I see that you have 2 legitimate complaints, and I will talk to those now.
>
> The first round of voting had flaws - but most have been fixed, either for
> future or retroactively to validate the results
> There have been problems with alerting campus to the internal workings of
> CB/SG
>
> You haven't been to meetings. You don't know what is going on. We have
> solved essentially every other problem. The HSU is at the opposite of
> failure point - it gets stronger every day. That you would assume you know
> what is going on and call for dissolution and reformation as absurd. Oct
> 11, HYPE, and voting are all being addressed and resolved currently and
> internally
>
> You're deadline of Tuesday is also unreasonable - we met last night, you
> did not come. We do not have another public meeting until Thursday. Don't
> put deadlines between meetings.
>
> If you want to participate in out FUNCTIONING system, do so. Do not make
> demands because you have a pet peeve or complaints based on gossip.
>
>
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Ethan Warshow, At-Large Member of the Coordinating Board of the HSU.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- 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 -----
>>
>>
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