Dr. Harvey Palmer, Dean of the College of Engineering, said that he apologized
to one candidate for an e-mail sent to all engineering students endorsing
Student Government (SG) presidential candidate Ed Wolf in the
closing hours of the election. “I certainly am not going to do this again,”
Palmer said.
Palmer said that Wolf asked him to send the e-mail because he [Palmer]
has access to an e-mail list of engineering students: “[Wolf] can’t access
that. He had to go to someone in the college who had access to it,” Palmer
said. The e-mail was sent shortly after SG announced it was extending the
election by three hours because one candidate’s profile was not posted on
the ballot, but Palmer said Wolf approached him earlier in the week.
“While I prefer to remain on the sidelines with respect to Student Government
elections,” read the e-mail in part, “I do believe that it is in the
college’s best interests to have KGCOE students like Ed representing the
interests of students on the RIT campus.”
“It would have been nice if I had left out ‘like Ed,’” Palmer said in an interview.
“In my mind, I wasn’t trying to promote Ed over anyone else. I was
trying to promote a lack of apathy.”
Later, the e-mail includes, “I encourage you to [vote], regardless of who you
support.” The e-mail also includes a paragraph written by Wolf, and links
to Wolf’s campaign website and the SG voting website. Palmer said, “[The
e-mail] doesn’t say, ‘Vote for Ed Wolf.’ It says, ‘Vote.’”
Palmer said that Jonathan Berman, a vice presidential candidate, e-mailed
him to complain. Palmer declined to release Berman’s e-mail or his response,
calling them personal correspondence.
Michael Deyhim, another presidential candidate, said that the e-mail “endorsed
Ed Wolf” and that he “asked SG to seal the vote until everything
could be investigated thoroughly” at their meeting on April 18th. SG entered
into a closed session for approximately a half an hour, then rejected
Deyhim’s motion and announced Wolf as the winner.
Explaining their decision, SG Publicity Director Tina Leh said, “There’s no
policy on whether faculty or staff can endorse [SG candidates].”
