On April 7, the Council replaced two members-Judiciary Council (JC) Chair Ryan Smith '07, and member Jake Thomas '07-due to ethical considerations of partiality in the complaint filed against the AAS Executive Board elections of April 5. AAS President Ryan Park '05 and AAS Vice President, Dave Scherr '05 replaced Smith and Thomas. The JC committed two breaches of the constitution by performing this act. First, they disregarded the implied separation of powers among the branches of the association. Second, they placed a partial party on the panel.

In the AAS Constitution under the heading of "Composition of the Association of Amherst Students" it is clearly stated that the "AAS shall function by means of three separate branches: the Executive Branch, JC, and the Senate ... [and that] while each of these branches is unique in function, they shall also serve to keep a check on one another, to maintain balance of power and a collective student voice, and to ensure a fair and efficient AAS." This principle is reiterated throughout the document in outlining the structure of the student government. The placement of two executive board members on the JC violated this principle without any legitimate compulsion. With around 1,400 students on this campus and only about 40 serving as officers in the AAS, there is little doubt that impartial members could have been selected to serve on the JC for this one hearing without any conflict of the constitution's letter or spirit regarding the separation of powers between branches.

The second issue is related to Mr. Scherr's impartiality. No person publicly supporting a candidate for office in the election should serve on the JC for a hearing directly relating to the election. It is an affront to common sense. There is a strong reason to doubt the neutrality of such an individual's decision-making when there is the potential to benefit a candidate he/she expressly favours. The JC has a responsibility to select a temporary member whose partiality should not be reasonably questioned. The Council's failure to do so violates its constitutional responsibilities and taints the legitimacy of the hearing.

I am disappointed with the conduct of the Council. It is lamentable that the very branch created to safe-guard the constitution has elected to disregard some of its fundamental tenets. If further complaints arise in the tenure of this election, I call on the JC to appoint members to the committee in such a manner as to not violate any further provisions, be they in the bylaws or constitution.

Ghazal can be reached at erghazal@amherst.edu

Statement by Andrea Gyorody '07:

Last week's election for executive board positions turned into a fiasco not long after the voting booth opened. Even before I had a chance to vote, I received a number of e-mails expressing confusion over the write-in procedure, which turned out to be more complicated than I could have imagined. As a write-in candidate for vice president, that was a bit of a problem.

I decided rather quickly to dispute the election, and notified the JC chair, the Elections Committee chair and all of the candidates about what I intended to do. The hearing was haphazardly thrown together, and the JC proceedings were just as confusing as the ballot. Nevertheless, I felt I had been heard, and I was confident that my complaint-which argued that the dysfunctional write-in field comprised the fairness and equity of the election-would be successful.

Though I was pleased by their decision to grant a new election for vice president, I was dismayed that the JC had opted not to re-run the election for all offices, since all were affected by the write-in field. I understood their reluctance to submit the student body to another election and their concern that the elections would be even less fair because candidates would have more time to campaign, but I had hoped that the JC would have, in their terms, sided with "principle" over "expediency." Potentially annoying the student body would be obviously undesirable, but it should be worth the risk when the legitimacy of an election is at stake.

Gyorody can be reached at adgyorody@amherst.edu