By Asia Fields
With the Associated Students elections coming to a close, concerns have been raised about an incoming AS Board member’s ability to fulfill their duties and a current Board member’s violation of the election code.
On Monday, April 30, Vice President for Diversity Erick Yanzon violated the election code by making a now-deleted public Facebook post endorsing candidates. As of this year, sitting AS Board members are not allowed to offer endorsements in any capacity.
Yanzon endorsed a candidate for each AS Board position except vice president for business and operations. Without naming him in the post, they pointed out the candidate running for this position, Genaro Meza, is unopposed, and encouraged students to be critical of how unopposed candidates can win without student support.
“As students, we have the POWER to elect someone who will truly represent our needs, but to also de-elect a candidate who is arrogant, inexperienced, and misogynistic,” they wrote.
Meza denied Yanzon’s claims and said he made his experience clear at the AS debates.
“I have great analytic, diplomatic, and visionary skills that are perfectly suited for the job,” he said in an email. “Additionally, I have business experience—a great amount for a third year college student. My economics major ensures that I will only improve at my job. Lastly, I am familiar with bureaucracy, I’ve participated in such organizations all my life.”
While Yanzon said they didn’t have any personal negative experiences with Meza, they said they knew others who had.
Two students who wish to remain anonymous said they had to ask Meza to leave an AS event they helped organize earlier this year after he confronted them about posters warning the event discussed discrimination against people with disabilities and anti-blackness.
They said Meza came up to them and tried to argue about the signs for around 15 minutes.
They asked him to leave and said he turned some of the content warning posters around on his way out.
One of the students said she is concerned Meza will not be able to work with people with identities and opinions that differ from his own.
Meza said he does not recall the incident at all.
“I do not recall the alleged confrontation, and in any case I think the topic of trigger warnings is irrelevant to my candidacy,” he said.
Rosa Rice-Pelepko, who is AS legislative liaison but was not speaking in her official AS capacity, said she also took issue with Meza’s performance at the debate, calling it “off-putting.”
Yanzon, Rice-Pelepko and one of the students who kicked out Meza pointed to one moment in the debate in particular. Meza was asked how he would inspire confidence in students considering he is running unopposed.
“Over 15,000 people and I’m the only one who ran. That should be reason enough,” Meza said at the time.
Meza said the response was not meant to be anything more than humorous.
“In order not repeat myself I gave a short, slightly tongue-in-cheek answer to move the proceedings along,” Meza said in an email.
When asked about the comment that students can “de-elect” a candidate, Yanzon said they had heard some interest in the impeachment process coming from students, but that they mostly wanted to make sure students were aware of this option.
AS Elections Coordinator Francesca Cruz confirmed some students have been inquiring about the impeachment process.
AS Board members can be recalled by a majority vote in a special election, which is initiated by a petition with verified signatures of at least 40 percent of the votes cast in the general election, according to the election code. The recall can also be initiated by a vote of the AS Board.
Yanzon ended up deleting their post after seeing the complications of the situation, and said in a statement they hope students will continue to do their own research on who to vote for. But they still stand by the contents of the post, they said.
Yanzon said they knew they violated the code, but said AS elections are always messy. They said the felt a responsibility to promote candidates who would best serve students, especially marginalized students.
“But ultimately, I did this because I do believe that I have the right to advocate to the issues these candidates have campaigned for, and for the future of the work they are going to do…” they said. “Because whose job is it to callout the problematic and negative actions of the candidates that are running, because the current system does not allow for that to happen sustainably.”
Cruz said candidates have come to her saying the endorsement Yanzon made was not fair.
The Board sits on the Elections Appeals Panel, which makes decisions on candidate disqualifications. She said it is a conflict of interest for the Board to be endorsing candidates.
Cruz said when Board members violate the election code it is not within her job duties to hold them accountable. They must hold themselves accountable, and AS President Simrun Chhabra is ultimately in charge of this, she said.
Over Facebook Messenger, Chhabra said she hopes students will vote and make their own decisions.
“I’m really impressed with these races and there has been a lot of unnecessary, and a lot of necessary, drama,” she said.
Chhabra did not respond specifically about Yanzon’s violation of the code.
Changes to the AS election code, inluding banning board member endorsements, were unanimously approved at the February 28 meeting.
“Every single Board member approved of it, so to go against it is an interesting choice,” Cruz said.
In their statement, Yanzon said they approved the code due to time and bureaucracy, while still having unanswered questions about not being able to endorse candidates that they brought up during a Board meeting.
Yanzon said they don’t believe policies should be ignored, but asked at whose expense are Board members trying to follow these rules “rooted in exclusion and inaccessibility.”
“Think about how many things marginalized communities have actually accomplished in a bureaucratic institution if we followed the rules,” they said, citing the Ethnic Student Center, Multicultural Center and RA movement.
Cruz, Yanzon and Rice-Pelepko all pointed to the larger issue of a lack of students running for positions, resulting in uncontested races. They said work needs to be done to make running for the AS Board more accessible to students.
Cruz said she tried to address one barrier to running this year by proposing the elimination of the requirement to gather 100 student signatures before being able to run. However, this was not passed by the Board.
She said she understands how this can be frustrating to students, and encourages people to step out of their comfort zone and file for positions even if they don’t feel extremely qualified.
“It’s something very specific personality types tend to run for,” Rice-Pelepko said.
She said the first people to jump at the opportunity to apply for AS Board positions are often white men who can see themselves in those roles, and that more needs to be done to encourage other people to run.
Yanzon also said it will take a multi-year process and cultural shift to address this issue, and to recognize that being a Board member means being overworked and undersupported. They also said the AS need to address how undocumented students are still unable to run for office.
Yanzon said they believe most of the candidates are qualified, but that more needs to be done to ensure candidates are held accountable. There needs to be a more efficient way for concerns about candidates and the Board to be looked into and addressed, they said.
Yanzon also called on students to vote.
“People have concerns about the AS, but how many people actually vote?” Yanzon asked.
The Associated Students’ election ends at 2 p.m. Friday. Students can vote at http://wwu.edu/vote
Read Yanzon’s full statement below:
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