A candidate for Student Government Association President has filed an appeal of the SGA elections held April 16 and 17, but has since rescinded it.

Stephen Meier, manager in the Dean of Students office and advisor to SGA, said the appeal was based on how many credits someone must have to run in SGA elections. ‘It’s a matter of interpretation of the bylaws,’ he said.

Tony Gulla notified The Northerner April 23 that the appeal had been dropped. He later notified the Dean of Students office that he wanted to rescind his appeal. Meier confirmed that the appeal had been withdrawn.

Gulla said, ‘(The appeal) was one of those things you just do when you lose. I’m at the point where I’m OK.’ He added that he is happy for president-elect Cronon and sends his congratulations.

The issue behind the appeal was based on whether or not president-elect Gabe Cronon had enough credit hours in the spring 2008 semester to run for president.

According to Article V Section 1 of SGA’s constitution, a qualification to run for the executive board is that the student must have full-time status, as defined by Northern Kentucky University. Full-time status is between 12 and 16 credit hours. To know of how many credit hours Cronon is taking, someone would have had to access his student records.

Those records, including how many credit hours someone is taking, are private. Throughout the appeal, Cronon said he is keeping up with his duties as president-elect. ‘I am writing my E-board and beginning the work that has to be done for SGA and relying on the faith of the system and the constitution,’ he said. ‘I have to continue to do what’s best for the students and be the president-elect.’ Cronon said he is just laying low right now until everything is settled.

When an appeal is filed, it must go through the Judicial Council and the Election board before being sent to Dean of Students Matt Brown for final approval. According to SGA’s constitution, the dean has ‘final determination’ on the appeal.

It is not clear at this time whether or not anything related to the appeal will need to be presented to Brown because it has been withdrawn. According to his secretary, Brown is out of town until April 24. Neither Brown nor Vice President of Student Affairs Zebulon Davenport have been available for comment.

To see a copy of the appeal click here.

Jesse Call contributed to this report.

Editor’s Note: The Northerner has redacted Gulla’s phone number from the documents.

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