After one of the lowest SGA Senate elections turnouts in recent years, and what some senators believe was a failure to fully comply with election statutes, Shane Meckler’s paid position as SGA supervisor of elections is officially in jeopardy.
A movement within senate to oust Meckler was announced in December. It comes after the Fall SGA Senate elections had only 7 out of 56 Senate seats contested, with only 2,894 people voting — an enormous drop when compared to last year’s election where 9,401 people voted.
The announcement was made during the last Senate meeting of the Fall semester by Elections and Appointments Chair Jordan Land, who informed the Senate that among the first official committee business of 2011 will be a discussion to remove Supervisor of Elections Shane Meckler from his post.
According to Chair Land’s address, there are “some sentiments of committee members for a recommendation of removal of the supervisor of elections.”
Even after Land’s public announcement, Meckler was unaware of the movement to oust him from office when contacted by KnightNews.com in December.
“Mrs. Land, Chair of E&A nor any Senator nor any student has ever made any contact with me about the idea of removal,” Meckler wrote in response to an email to KnightNews.com asking for comment about the campaign to kick him out of office.
Watch video of Chair Land’s announcement to Senate:
Meckler may not have been aware of the movement to oust him because he appears to have skipped out on the last meeting of the semester, when Land announced how committee members want him gone. Even though he missed that meeting — where one of biggest overhauls to election statues in UCF history was scheduled for a vote — Meckler indicated he was bothered that those wanting him gone didn’t track him down to let him know.
“I find it a bit disconcerting that people are conacting Knight News, unsolicited, expressing this interest [to oust him] but not a single person has contacted me expressing this interest,” Meckler wrote in a response to KnightNews.com after we broke the news to him about how some senators want him gone.
KNIGHTNEWS.COM INVESTIGATES MECKLER’S JOB PERFORMANCE
Knightnews.com investigated whether Meckler is in compliance with statutes for the upcoming SGA Presidential election scheduled for March.
Miss our investigation into SGA spending on lobbying in December? Read it now!
According to SGA Election Statutes, 605.1(Q), the supervisor of elections is required to do the following: “Shall be responsible for advertising the Spring Election in the campus media three (3) weeks before the end of the Fall semester.”
Meckler indicated to KnightNews.com back in December that he placed no ads in the student newspapers serving UCF, such as the Central Florida Future and KnightNews.com, despite the language in statutes requiring “advertising the Spring election in the campus media…”
Instead, Meckler told KnightNews.com he chose to advertise on Nov. 22, 2010 in publications called: “UCF Newsroom/UCF News & Information/Good Morning UCF (which are all related).”
Most students we talked to admitted they don’t read publications like Good Morning UCF, an electronic newsletter sent out by UCF with generic campus announcements about events like art festivals and GMAT test prep.
“I get it every morning, I rarely read it,” Evan Grabois said. “I haven’t been on campus since the fall semester, but I didn’t see a notice anywhere as to how to run for SGA president.”
We found one student who said he’s read the Good Morning UCF email “multiple times.” Despite doing so, Freshman Eric Shreiber said, “I have yet to see any sort of advertisement for the upcoming election.”
Schreiber wasn’t the only one who had a hard time finding a Good Morning UCF email with the SGA election included within it.
Over break, even Meckler himself wasn’t able to find a copy of a Good Morning UCF email advertising the Spring elections when KnightNews.com requested he forward it over to prove his statutorily required election advertisement was sent to students.
Meckler suggested his adviser could help track it down in Spring, but KnightNews.com did some digging and discovered a “Good Morning UCF” email sent out on November 22 deadline made no specific mention of the SGA presidential elections.
The email did however have a link to additional announcements buried at the bottom of the email. Any student who decided to open the email and click the link at the bottom would have been brought to another page of announcements in their web browser.
Buried at the bottom of that page — third from the bottom — was the following message: “SGA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS will be here before you know it! Petitions will be available in February 2011 and the Election will be held in March 2011.”
As far as the other campus media sources Meckler cited, a KnightNews.com’s investigation did not find any advertisements of any kind on the UCF Newsroom website for anything — period. If they exist, they weren’t noticeable after a thorough search.
Meckler said he also placed posters around campus and made a Facebook page to get the word out three weeks before the Fall semester ended. As of Sunday night only twenty people had joined the Facebook page.
He plans to step advertising up for Spring.
“In the Spring, we will continue UCF Newsroom/Good Morning UCF announcements, posters, A-Frames, social media advertising and we anticipate placing advertisements in the Central Florida Future and Knight News dependent on pricing,” he said.
But even with a plan for stepped up advertising on the way, regular students not involved in SGA who may see the ads in the mainstream campus media news sources and decide to run for SGA president are already behind. KnightNews.com has learned several SGA insiders have already been tossing around the idea and gauging support for potential tickets.
NEW INTERPRETATION OF RULES RAISES QUESTIONS
For as long as several SGA sources KnightNews.com has talked to can remember, SGA had satisfied its statutory requirement to advertise in campus media by placing the ad in a traditional student news source by its prescribed deadline. SGA even allocates a budget for the Supervisor of Elections to buy ads.
But Meckler has a difference of opinion from those who served before him. Before Meckler’s time, it was widely believed the SGA statutes required election ads be placed in tradtional — and more popular — campus media.
Under Meckler’s watch, traditional election advertising policy seemed to change this past Fall when he placed only one ad in the Central Florida Future — after the prescribed deadline. Despite UCF’s surge in student population, voter turnout plummeted. At the time, students and candidates alike told KnightNews.com poor advertising was the problem.
When KnightNews.com questioned Meckler about his change in policy during the Senate elections he stood by it. A KnightNews.com attorney even wrote Meckler a letter explaining that based on basics of statutory construction case law, he was breaking statutes — but he didn’t budge. A UCF attorney responded explaining SGA’s apparent new position that “campus media” doesn’t include KnightNews.com or the Central Florida Future and instead includes the electronic campus newsletters.
The UCF attorney did not explain in the legal correspondence why SGA had a paid advertising budget for election advertising when it was SGA’s interpretation that statutes did not require it.
After taking the stance that current statutes don’t require paid advertising in UCF’s main campus news sources, Meckler said he did help make suggestions in a newly crafted bill, which happens to remove that requirement. That bill, which includes massive overhauls to SGA statutes removing the portions KnightNews.com’s attorney pointed out in her legal analysis, was debated at the last meeting of the Fall semester but was never voted on.
For now, the future of that election overhaul bill — which would give SGA the power to advertise elections in publications students admit they don’t read — seems as uncertain as Meckler’s. Both hinge on the votes of senators who got elected to represent the student voice.
As far as Meckler’s future is concerned, E&A Chair Land invited senators to come to the next E&A meeting to watch the discussion of his potential removal take place, which will most likely be the first E&A meeting of the Spring Semester.
According to an SGA website, E&A meets at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays.
KnightNews.com will continue to follow the removal hearing or any action taken by SGA regarding the Supervisor of Elections Shane Meckler and its fluctuating policies on advertising important elections to the student body.
Check back for updates on this major developing story.
