Sophomore Russell Shepard can no longer run for University Court, Student Government Commissioner of Elections Alexis Sarver confirmed Tuesday.
Shepard, a wide receiver on the football team, was on the ticket for the “Geauxing the Distance” campaign, but Sarver said he has been disqualified for failing to attend one of two meetings all University Court candidates must attend.
Candidates for University Court must attend one of those two meetings to still be eligible to run for office. The meetings took place March 9 at 1 p.m. and Monday at noon, and Sarver said Shepard missed both because of class.
Candidates have the option to set up a separate meeting through the SG Commissioner of Elections if they provide an excuse within a valid time frame. Sarver said the deadline to provide an excuse for either meeting was March 9 by 4:30 p.m. but that the deadline was not strictly enforced.
Sarver said the first time she talked to Shepard about the meetings was shortly after Monday’s meeting.
Sarver said Shepard would have been informed about the meetings during election filing from Feb. 22-24.
“He had class, but i was not informed in the time that i was supposed to be informed,” Sarver said. “Had he told me in due time within the deadline, then i would have possibly set up something for him to have a makeup.”
She said she was first informed around 11 a.m. Monday by someone from the Geauxing the Distance ticket that Shepard would not make Monday’s meeting.
“He had a class at that time [of the meetings], and he had a pop quiz [March 15],” Sarver said. “Even the week before would have been fine. Five minutes before it is not enough time and it isn’t fair to the other candidates.”
Sarver said she has already disqualified other candidates running for college councils because they failed to attend mandatory meetings.
“This isn’t the only case at all,” she said.
 
—-Contact The Daily Reveille’s sports staff at [email protected]