Confusion over the wording of the student government constitution has led to a student court case examining the method ASU's Programming and Activities Board used to choose its next president and vice president.
The student government Supreme Court will decide the case, Dan Moody v. Programming and Activities Board, today; on Friday, it heard oral arguments.
Moody, a math and economics senior, filed a complaint March 29 with the student court.
"Instead of a publicly held meeting and a general election, the PAB chose their incoming leaders in secret without letting students decide, which to me is cronyism," Moody said.
In a closed-door meeting in late March, the eight-member board selected journalism junior Ferron Dunham and political science and Italian junior James Pedicone to serve as president and vice president, respectively, in 2004-2005.
Current PAB president Michael Rodriguez, who is named in the suit, maintained that the board did its best to interpret the constitution.
"The election laws for PAB are very conflicting, and discussions started over a year ago to try to figure out what it all meant," Rodriguez said.
In the first year of the new constitution, 2003-2004, a general student election decided the officers of PAB, much like the process used in the other branches of student government.
The puzzling language of the procedures in subsequent years is the heart of the case, the justices said.
Rodriguez and PAB vice president John Ronquillo talked to various members of student government to try to clarify elections procedures. But they never requested the transcripts from the constitutional convention two years ago. This is something law graduate student and Chief Justice Kari Jill Granville said concerned her.
"I am worried that the confusion over the rules has come up after the fact that PAB decided the leadership and then had discussions over it," Granville said.
The board was designed to be autonomous and apolitical, Granville added.
Both Moody and Rodriguez said they felt confident they would win the case.
Moody said even if he loses the case, he would continue to "work next year to make the constitution better understood and followed."
"PAB controls a lot of the students' money, and they put on a lot of events that the average student doesn't attend. So, students should be able to vote in new people that wouldn't put on the same events year after year," he said.
Rodriguez said that if PAB loses, it would have to hold an open election and "hope and pray someone qualified gets nominated and elected."
The court will decide the case -- its first of the year -- today, and post the opinion at the front desk of the student government office on the third floor of the Memorial Union and online at www.asu.edu/asasu.
Reach the reporter at annemarie.moody@asu.edu.
