SA Meeting Deciding Evangelista’s Fate Delayed

The Syracuse University Student Association’s decision on whether President Eric Evangelista violated the SA’s constitution has been delayed.

On Monday night’s meeting in Maxwell Auditorium, general assembly and cabinet members were in attendance. After the meeting was called to order, Matthew VanDemark, Chairperson of the Judicial Review Board, released a statement. According to VanDemark, the board could not confirm a decision on the matter at this time. This was to allow more time for input and testimony from association members. VanDemark also stated that the Judicial Review Board will be reviewing additional evidence and listen to other testimonies in their meeting, taking place immediately after this SA assembly. They will most likely reach a verdict tonight or sometime within the current week.

Members of the Student Association will be informed on the decision before it is released to the general public, VanDemark stated that members of the JRB were advised not to comment on the matter until further notice.

According to a phone call with the Co-Chair of the JRB Abdulaziz Al-Sulaiti, Evangelista is currently under Judicial Review due to violations related to the recently vacated Public Relations co-chair. In January, Evangelista had nominated Nicole Sherwood, a senior PR major, to fill the position.

Members had expressed concern over the Sherwood’s attendance along with Evangelista’s decision not to open applications to all students. To promote inclusivity, members decided to open the application process to all students. However, despite the following decision, Evangelista failed to send out an e-mail to the student body.” The Notice of Violation was sent on January 26, 2017. The notice stated that he committed a Constitutional Violation according to Article 4.2. This article states that “The President shall be responsible for executing the decisions of the Assembly, this notice was accidentally forwarded to the community after a reply with an explanation from Evangelista. In this explanation, he said that he did not send the e-mail requested by the assembly because there was another e-mail schedule to be sent on February 1st. A separate e-mail was not sent to “maintain maximum credibility amongst a students [sic] population likely experiencing ‘e-mail fatigue’.” Included was an apology to the members of the cabinet and the assembly for any indiscretion. Since Evangelista committed a Constitutional Violation, this is grounds to dismiss him from his position in the 60th session of the Student Assembly.

The next Student Association meeting will be on February 13, 2017 at 7:30 PM in the Maxwell Auditorium. By this time, the Judicial Review Board hopes to have a final decision on Evangelista’s verdict.