This election season, the Residence Hall Association (RHA) has seen four different presidents and far too many appeals to list. We at the Wheel feel that this endless parade of RHA presidents, cheating allegations and, we must say it, shenanigans reflects terribly on RHA and student governance at Emory in general.
To recap the madness: following a general election on March 28 in which neither College sophomore Akshay Goswami nor College sophomore Jessica Simon achieved a majority of the vote, a run-off election occurred between Goswami and Simon, where Goswami ended up winning the re-vote. After this happened, Simon accused Goswami of cheating, and he was disqualified. However, Goswami appealed the disqualification and was granted another re-vote, where College junior Kadean Maddix was allowed to re-enter the race as a candidate. Simon won this vote. After this Goswami proceeded to accuse Simon of cheating, and both candidates were disqualified. Maddix was elected RHA president at that point. But Simon appealed the accusations.
After Simon approached the Student Government Association (SGA) with her appeal, they ruled that she should become RHA president ... again.
Maddix, who had served as president for six days, was forced to leave the post. The official document in which the ruling was outlined states that the allegations that Simon cheated were not founded because her use of Microsoft Office 365 did not diverge from the allowed postings in LearnLink conferences.
It seems Simon cheated enough to lead to her original disqualification but not enough to stop SGA from overruling this disqualification.
The document continues to say, "We reverse the decision of the Residence Hall Association to disqualify Simon from the presidential race. Furthermore, as the Elections Board has previously certified Simon as the winner of the RHA presidential race, we conclude that Simon has been duly elected to and qualified for the office of RHA president."
Simon's inability to concede and accept her disqualification – bringing her case to SGA to intervene, effectively taking away the presidency from Maddix (the only elected RHA president that did not cheat) – makes us doubt, to a certain degree, her ability to lead effectively. This is not the mark of an effective leader.
The flurry of disqualifications and subsequent appeals somewhat delegitimizes RHA's position as an effective organization on campus. We feel that RHA's best interests have not been put first in deciding who will be RHA president.
After both Simon and Goswami were disqualified, RHA made the right move in making Maddix president. Maddix may not have garnered as many votes as the other two, but his votes were honest. It does not make sense that a candidate found guilty for cheating should be allowed to keep the position of president.
Further, it is discouraging that SGA intervened in this matter. By going to SGA, Simon undermined the authority of RHA's Elections Board and its ruling. She ignored the decision RHA made, thereby further disrespecting the organization. This is no way for the president of RHA and an Emory student leader to conduct herself. This whole affair has made a mockery of student governance. A true leader knows when to accept defeat and to do so gracefully.
We hope in the future RHA will take measures to stop anything like this from happening. We also hope that other student organizations use this incident as a model for what not to do as a student leader.
The above staff editorials represent the majority opinion of the Wheel's editorial board.
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