The Commonwealth Times
published a news brief March 24
regarding this week’s Student Government
Association elections.
The brief “SGA Voting,” found
on Page 6 of the issue, addressed
an apparent lack of information
about where and how students
might vote and questioned which
names might appear on the official
ballots.
After further investigation, The
CT’s editorial staff found a single
e-mail attempt by the news editor
to request information from SGA
Elections Chair Angela Bitter.
While contacting an advertising-
department employee about
acquiring a paid ad, Bitter gave the
employee details about this year’s
election. Bitter said she thought
the information also would reach
the news desk at some point.
Because the advertising department
and the newsroom are independent
entities, this information
never was relayed to The CT news
editor, who then reported a lack of
communication by the SGA.
The editor also posted his
opinion of an SGA candidate
in The CT Web site comments
section.
These actions breached the
bylaws of The CT, and the news
editor was fired. The CT removed
innappropriate comments from
the Web site in the interest of fair
representation of all candidates.
In a meeting Wednesday afternoon,
representatives of The
CT and the SGA met to discuss
communication issues between
the two organizations.
“We’ve opened the door for
a free flow of communication,”
Bitter said.
CT Executive Editor Rebecca
Landau agrees.
“The CT has to protect its status
as a publication that strives to be
as professional, objective and as
accurate as possible,” Landau said.
“The CT apologizes to Ms. Bitter
and to any candidates affected.”
Official SGA election info
2008 Executive and Senatorial Candidates
All candidates are of
the College of
Humanities and
Sciences, unless
otherwise indicated.
Executive Ticket
“Real Change for VCU”
Steven Latimer
Gonzalo Aida-Brescia
Joshua Ronk
Executive Ticket
“Students for Positive
Change”
Jibran Muhammad
Adam Sowder
Soulmaz ‘Solle’
Taghavi
Senatorial Candidates
Ja’nel Edens
Jordan Harris
Josh Kadrich
Timothy J. Fox
Nathaniel Markson
Anahita Sarshar
Pankti Barot
Ben Nelson
Eric Murphy,
School of Engineering
Stephen Straus
Lauren Fevrier
Morgan E. McDowell
Natalie Vazquez
Neda Tara Kashanian
Jonathan Ward
Solen Iyassu
La Juana Chambers