Student Association President Eric Evangelista is under an SA Judicial Review Board investigation for violating the SA constitution by not fulfilling a request made by the SA assembly.

Evangelista allegedly violated the SA constitution by not acting on the assembly’s request to send a campus-wide email calling for applications for the vacant cabinet position of public relations co-chair, according to a copy of the violation notice obtained by The Daily Orange. Evangelista originally appointed a student to that position without opening applications to the student body.

Evangelista will appear in front of the Judicial Review Board on Monday at 1 p.m. for a judicial hearing to further investigate the violation, according to the notice. Evangelista said in a statement to The Daily Orange on Friday that he looked forward to meeting with the JRB and “working to put their concerns to rest so I may continue my work in serving the Syracuse University community.”

Evangelista told SA members in a Facebook post on Jan. 13 that he intended to send a campus-wide email calling for applications for the positions of PR co-chair and community engagement co-chair, but that email was not sent, according to the violation notice. He instead nominated Nicole Sherwood, a senior public relations major, to the position without opening applications to the student body.

At SA’s first meeting of the semester on Jan. 23, cabinet and assembly members expressed concerns over the nomination process and voted unanimously to table Sherwood’s confirmation until a formal application could be distributed to the student body.

Evangelista then allegedly violated the SA constitution by not acting on the assembly’s request to send an email calling for applications a week prior to the next assembly meeting, scheduled for Jan. 30, according to the notice.

“Failure to execute Assembly’s decision is a clear Constitutional violation per Article IV (4.2) which states: The President shall be responsible for executing the decisions of the Assembly,” the violation notice states. “The JRB will treat any and all violations of the Constitution and the Bylaws seriously and considers this act intolerable.”

In an email Thursday night meant only for SA members but that was mistakenly sent campus-wide, Evangelista said he had intended on opening applications for the PR co-chair position via a campus-wide email that was scheduled to be sent Feb. 1. Evangelista also said he originally planned to send that email during Winter Break, “but I was overstretched with some other obligations and had not gotten around to composing one.”

That seemed to contradict comments Evangelista made at Monday’s meeting, when he said the president typically fills vacant positions and that opening applications to the student body would cause a delay and take time away from SA’s other initiatives.

In a second email sent Thursday night to the student body, Evangelista opened applications for the PR co-chair and community engagement co-chair positions.

“I have been doing my best to ensure that the 60th session is successful,” Evangelista said in the email meant only for SA members. “If this is not a view shared by the organization, I would greatly appreciate and welcome feedback. I apologize again for any indiscretion, I look forward to continuously working with you on all of our initiatives.”

Published on January 27, 2017 at 5:15 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu