The Daily Northwestern

Associated Student Government’s Judicial Board recommended Tuesday that Tamara Kagel be censured by Senate just one week after she was sworn in as academic vice president.

The recommendation results from Kagel spending $18.38 more than the $100 limit during her campaign. A resolution needs to come before Senate and be passed by two-thirds of Senate to enact the censure, a public admonishment with no actual consequences for Kagel.

However, because no one submitted such a resolution, the Senate will not consider the matter tonight.

Kagel called the recommendation to censure just a way to force her campaign to admit wrongdoing.

“I feel scapegoated,” she said. “There are other ways that need to be considered by Senate, ASG and the Judicial Board in order to answer the complaints filed and to address elections in the future.”

The board also will ask that Kagel and ASG President Rachel Lopez issue public apologies for overspending during their election campaigns. Lopez was only $4.07 over her limit, so the punishment was less severe, Judicial Board members said.

Paying fines for other penalties handed down by the Judicial Board pushed both Kagel and Lopez over the spending limit established in the election guidelines.

The board’s new chief justice said the candidates themselves might not have been responsible for the violations that caused them to overspend.

“A lot of these violations could be as a result of campaign workers not knowing the rules,” said Mitch Holzrichter, whom judicial board members elected chief justice at a Monday meeting.

Kawika Pierson, a McCormick sophomore and chairman of this year’s election commission, said the Judicial Board’s recommendation for censure was an unfair punishment for Kagel and inconsistent with the commission’s findings, which recommended just a public apology.

Lopez, who said she probably will issue her apology at next week’s Senate meeting, said the election guidelines need reform.

“There is no real investigative structure to find out if (these violations) really happened,” said Lopez, a Weinberg junior.

Throughout the campaign, allegations of impropriety plagued several candidates. The Judicial Board’s seven members heard 15 complaints, issuing penalties in 11 cases. Holzrichter, a Weinberg freshman, said the most commonly violated rule was the university’s fliering policy.

Some ASG senators said they weren’t sure if a slap on the wrist would be effective.

“It’s not worth Senate’s time to censure someone for $18 when we’re dealing with doling out thousands of dollars in funding,” said Austin Harvey, Jones Residential College senator and a Speech sophomore. “The Judicial Board themselves said the election guidelines needed to be overhauled.”

Changes will be made to the election guidelines next Winter Quarter, when Senate approves the guidelines for the upcoming election. But Jason Warren, ASG rules committee chairman and a Speech sophomore, said some possible reforms will soon be discussed by the rules committee.

The last campus-elected ASG officer to face official sanction for violating campaign rules was ASG President Alix Rosenthal, Weinberg ’96, who resigned in February 1995 when faced with a Senate impeachment hearing. Rosenthal spent $26.06 more than the then-$75 limit by splitting a receipt from Kinko’s Copies.

At tonight’s meeting, senators also will vote on additional allocations for 17 remaining A-status student groups and approve final funding recommendations. Senate has $22,569 left in discretionary funds to distribute.

At last week’s meeting, Senate voted down an appeal by Niteskool Productions for $4,953 to produce a CD next year. But with approval from two-thirds of senators present, Senate could reconsider the appeal tonight.

Senators also will consider whether to amend the ASG constitution to make referendums binding for only two years, instead of the current four years.

A new bill to install global positioning systems on campus shuttles will be introduced at tonight’s meeting to be voted on next week.