Editorial Board

Third postponement of Evangelista decision demonstrates Judicial Review Board’s irresponsibility

On Monday night, the Student Association Judicial Review Board postponed — for the third time — the announcement of its decision regarding an investigation into an alleged constitutional violation committed by SA President Eric Evangelista.

The Judicial Review Board originally stated it would announce the verdict of the Evangelista investigation on Feb. 3. The announcement was then postponed to Feb. 6, the date of the subsequent SA assembly meeting. At that meeting, it was postponed until the next week’s meeting on Feb. 13. But at Monday’s meeting, the decision was postponed once more.

Evangelista is under investigation for appointing a cabinet member without first opening applications to the student body. Evangelista’s alleged violation of the SA constitution is due to not acting on a request from the assembly to send a campus-wide email calling for applications for a public relations co-chair position.

Considering Evangelista neglected to send the email, the investigation at hand does not seem complicated. But the Judicial Review Board has somehow taken more than two weeks to nail down a decision on the investigation, and now claims it needs even more time. If the investigation really is that complicated, the board should not be making promises regarding when it will announce its decision.

The Evangelista controversy began when he nominated Nicole Sherwood, a senior public relations major and former public relations co-chair for SA, to the position without first sending an email to the Syracuse University student body that called for applications for the position.



The assembly raised concerns over Sherwood’s nomination at a Jan. 23 assembly meeting and requested that Evangelista send an email to the student body prior to the next meeting on Jan. 30, according to a copy of the violation notice obtained by The Daily Orange. Evangelista’s failure to send that email meant he might have violated the SA constitution.

Postponing the announcement three times demonstrates the board’s gross unpreparedness to handle the investigation and reflects poorly on SA as a whole. If the assembly believes it deserves the respect of the greater SU community, it should take this matter seriously and actually address the investigation at hand.





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