IUSA elections commissioner: SCUM ticket ineligible to run

The race to win control of the IU Student Association became one ticket smaller this week after an IUSA declaration. The elections commissioner declared the Students Concerned with University Matters (SCUM) ticket ineligible Monday. The group has decided to remain involved in the election under the auspices of the Optimistic New Energy (ONE) ticket.\nIUSA declared SCUM ineligible because a congressional candidate was needed to complete the ticket, according to an e-mail sent by the IUSA elections commissioner. \nFormer IUSA senator and current ONE campaign manager senior Eli Ewing said the IUSA Congress decided last year to adopt codes increasing election inclusion. In a near-unanimous vote, the Congress passed a bill enabling congressional candidates to run together and executive candidates to seek office without an official ticket name.\nEwing said he believes SCUM's ineligibility results from a misreading of the election code. He claims IUSA based its arguments on the old code and failed to consider last year's legislation.\n"Initially, we were shocked," admitted former SCUM presidential candidate Andrew Hodgetts, a sophomore. "We thought we had read the rules fairly well, and hadn't noticed this particular provision. We looked over it again, and there was still some confusion as to whether or not we had actually broken the election laws."\nExpressing admiration for SCUM's proactive efforts in "bringing IUSA back to the students" -- SCUM's main goal -- ONE presidential candidate, senior Justin Treasure, supported the tickets' merger. He said the tickets plan to work on short-term issues while broadening the scope of IUSA itself.\n"SCUM's platform centered itself around campus involvement, an issue which the ONE ticket has been concerned with from day one," Treasure said. "As the other ticket comprised entirely of ambitious students outside of the current organization, we were sympathetic to the difficulty SCUM faced in getting involved in IUSA."\nHodgetts attributed SCUM's support of ONE to the need to increase voter turnout. Both groups advocate restoring IUSA to a student organization as opposed to its current state, what Ewing termed "bureaucracy." By rallying SCUM supporters to back ONE, both tickets said they believe SCUM's key goal can still be attained.\nBoth groups, accompanied by comedy troupe All Sorts of Trouble for the Boy in the Bubble, will conduct a press conference tonight at 7 p.m. in the Redbud Room of the Indiana Memorial Union. Interested students are invited to attend.\n"We believe that together we have an even better chance of creating a much more student-friendly IUSA, one in which every student has both the capability and inclination to get involved," Treasure concluded.