The Facts: The majority of student body presidential candidates in this year’s Student Body Elections, including the winner, made several violations on their expense reports for the campaign. Our Opinion: While we should be able to rely on candidates to be ethical during the campaign season, they weren’t completely this year, whether this was intentional or accidental. Since the election has already passed, the matter of punishment is out of the Elections Commission’s jurisdiction. Student Senate should step up and take appropriate measures: censure these people for their violations. The campaign is over and the winner is sworn in. However, the numbers after the fact show some discrepancies  with some of the candidates’ expense reports. While we can expect and hope the Elections Commission will be more stringent on candidates following their guidelines next campaign season, it is now in Student Senate’s hand to punish those with violations from this past election.

For the sake of the student body and the credibility of Student Government, it is in all of our best interests to ensure these violations are dealt with accordingly. The purpose of our Student Government is to represent the student body and our concerns; they act as an extension of the student body to administration, community organizations and even the Board of Trustees. If these elected officials are representing us, they should understand the ethical implications behind that—this means not being elected into office unfairly, whether the actions are a conscious effort or not.

The government’s balance of power is designed for these very cases. It is the responsibility of the Student Senate to make the appropriate decisions about how to handle these violations. Doing nothing is not an option. A student accidently breaking a rule can still be reprimanded. Candidates are no different and they shouldn’t be treated differently.

With proper proof and support, the Student Senate has the power to formally reprimand, or censure, Student Body President Chandler Thompson and other candidates who committed violations. This would go on public record and would simply acknowledge that these candidates did wrong. This could also help solidify faith in Student Senate’s and Student Government’s ethics.

For this censure to get on Wednesday’s docket, the censure would have to be written into a bill, submitted and voted on by the Senate to be fast-tracked by noon today. While this is unlikely and this sanction is merely a slap on the wrist, it would set the record straight about the violations during the campaign season and set an ethical precedence for this year’s Student Senate.

Student Senate should uphold the ethics of our Student Body and take the right course of action by voting on censuring Chandler Thompson and the other candidates for their campaigning violations. If they do not, then Student Government is setting a poor example for the student body.