Massachusetts Daily Collegian

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A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

SGA election stirs up questions about campaign

Avid supporters of the ‘Nat and Timmy’ ballot assert allegedly offensive accusations
SGA+election+stirs+up+questions+about+campaign
Caroline O’Connor

Editor’s Note: Since the publishing of this article, sections have been edited to better distinguish Stephanie Margolis’ opinions from that of the author. Additionally, information about the private Twitter account was deleted as it was deemed unnecessary to include in the article. 

The 2018 Student Government Association elections were shaken up when former candidate Stephanie Margolis accused a different ticket’s supporter of spreading foul information.

On Feb. 20 at approximately 12:55 p.m., a private Twitter account tweeted out a statement reading, “mmmm i hate sga elections bc i dont care as much as it seems but like it’d be nice if a zionist and frat bros didnt rep students formally, u kno?” This tweet was mentioned in Margolis’ original Facebook post.

A day later, on Feb. 21 at approximately 11:05 a.m., Brock Parent, a senior STPEC major, released an email to other STPEC members endorsing the presidential and vice-presidential ticket of then-candidates Timothy Sullivan and Nathalie Amazan.

Parent began the email by encouraging recipients to vote for the ticket by saying, “writing to you all today to encourage/plead you to vote in the SGA Elections and to do so for Nat and Timmy: the only ‘left’ (radical) President/VP ticket, and also a good one.”

The email concluded with the inclusion of remarks about the other president and vice-president tickets.

“I hope you will vote for Nat and Timmy to be the next President and Vice President of the Student Government Association. The other two tickets are: two fratty men who think things are fine as is (and keep stealing slogans from Nat and Timmy), and the VP of the other ticket is literally a fellow with the racist, islamophobic hate group, StandWithUs,” remarked Parent. “This is a no brainer, my friends.”

The “fratty men” remark referred to the Tim Conceison and Jake Binnall ticket, whereas the “fellow with the racist, islamophobic hate group” remark referred to vice-presidential candidate Stephanie Margolis.

It is still undetermined whether the Twitter user and Parent were in correlation with one another.

Margolis addressed the posts in a Facebook post with attached screenshots of Parent’s email.

“You will see a picture below of an email sent out to about 100 people who I have never met basically calling me racist and Islamophobic, two things which are not true,” Margolis stated. “They link these claims to my being pro-Israel which should have nothing to do with a campus election where outside political policies won’t matter or affect work I would be doing on campus for student interest.”

Margolis also referenced the remark about the Conceison and Binnall ticket in the Facebook post by saying, “You will notice that these also claim the other ticket in the race was fratty. While one of the candidates is in an upstanding fraternity on campus, his VP candidate has never been in Greek life.”

Sullivan and Amazan were elected as the SGA president and vice president for the 2018-19 school year, defeating the Conceison/Binnall and Nordberg/Margolis tickets.

Amazan responded to the controversial statements by saying that her ticket had no relation to Parent or the Twitter individual, saying that Parent acted out of his own volition.

“The issue was resolved on Feb. 21 and resulted in our suspension being rescinded, because this person in no way, shape or form was a part of our campaign…Any form of slander is completely against and does not uphold the values of our campaign,” Amazan explained.

The Parent email was addressed and resolved later that day after it was sent out.

“We’ve apologized to those who were hurt and have offered our energy to aid in any and all healing that they may need,” emphasized Amazan.

Parent and the anonymous Twitter user could not be reached for comment.

Gretchen Keller can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @gretchenkellerr.

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  • S

    Sam GoodmanMar 2, 2018 at 1:11 am

    You guys are missing the point. Whether or not this is good or bad journalism, I am glad this story is out there. The fact that two different students, of which there are probably more , who harbor antisemitic attitudes is alarming. As a liberal myself, I am disappointed in how supporters of a leftist/progressive campaign could spew such ignorant comments. If I didn’t know any better, these hateful comments could be coming from the mouth of an alt-right nationalist. I don’t know the students who sent the email or posted the tweet, but they have some serious self-reflecting to do if they believe they belong in any liberal/leftist political movement while declaring such disgusting speech. If you are a true supporter of Timmy Sullivan and Nathalie Amazan you should denounce such hate. or else you too have some self-reflecting to do.

    Reply
  • A

    AnnoyedFeb 28, 2018 at 5:21 pm

    This is idiotic. You literally are posting heresy. This is not journalism, unless you were hoping to work for TMZ. I am really disappointed that the editors allowed this through. What argument are you even making? Also people can’t be “in correlation”. Please up your standards Collegian.

    Reply
  • E

    Ed CuttingFeb 28, 2018 at 2:45 pm

    I think the larger issue is who has access to email lists and who doesn’t.

    Reply
  • D

    DisappointedFeb 27, 2018 at 8:03 pm

    Do the writer or editors realize how far this falls below the standards of journalism? This paper is supposed to be a steward of truth. Instead it’s stirring personal political opinion into “controversy” like any old gossip mill. Please learn and do better.

    Reply
  • D

    dont give out ppl's info its an issue of personal safetyFeb 27, 2018 at 7:39 pm

    YOU ALL ARE LITERALLY reporting on a PRIVATE TWITTER account. you do realize that’s HORRIBLE journalism, correct????? like tbh I’m laughing at everyone at the collegian who thought this was a good idea to post.

    Reply
  • D

    dont give out ppl's info its an issue of personal safetyFeb 27, 2018 at 7:37 pm

    a PRIVATE twitter account, i would fix that so the article is accurate.

    Reply
  • J

    John aimoFeb 27, 2018 at 6:35 pm

    To be honest, I wouldn’t doubt the election was stolen. It’s easy to do so and sure its sound cynical, including student governments liberals are known to cheat and steal the elections and on the basis of racist comments towards white males.

    The hostility of those who side with the far left/liberal philosophy is well known and documented, I am not saying that it happened here but it wouldn’t be unthinkable particularly with an anonymous twitter account.

    If I was Tim Conceison and Jim, I would demand the actual examination of the votes on the computer system or however it was tabulated. This should be provided without issue and also available to all students and the Daily Collegian to review to ensure transparency.

    Reply
  • C

    Confused ReaderFeb 27, 2018 at 4:42 pm

    Why are you giving out someone’s information lol

    Reply