Raleigh NC | UNC Student Government Officials, DTH Clash Over Public Records Law

University student government associations take themselves pretty seriously and can often serve to paint a fairly realistic microcosm of larger state and federal governments. It’s therefore not surprising that they often run into some controversies of their own and, just like many older, “wiser” government officials, make a complete mess of the situation.

One such example occurred this week and was covered by The Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Recent student elections have sent candidates in a frenzy. They have had to deal with a tedious, perplexing and often contradictory list of do’s and don’ts just to have a chance of getting elected. These rules have been laid out by this year’s Board of Election officials, Chairman Ryan Morgan and Vice Chairman Val Tenyotkin.

The DTH’s largest complaint, but by no means their only one, has been the BOE’s refusal to release the candidates’ petition signature lists.

In order for potential student government candidates to run on the ballot, they first must obtain 800 individual and unique signatures from other students on campus. In the past, the BOE and the DTH have always reviewed these signatures to make sure the candidates are in fact eligible to be placed on the voting ballot. But this year, the DTH was denied that privilege, and is accusing the BOE of breaking the North Carolina Public Records Law.

It seems this paper has built a strong case against the BOE, including speaking to former Chapel Hill student body presidents and University counsel. What has made their case even stronger has been their counterparts’ reaction to the accusations.

The DTH said when it asked Tenyotkin for the petition signatures, the BOE vice chairman told the editors that “Daily Tar Heel members are the only people who care.” Eh, bad response.

Then, Morgan said in an e-mail, “Look, if y’all really have this big of a problem with how we’re running the election, file a case with the Student Supreme Court or state court. I have more pertinent things to do than to comment on one-sided sensationalistic pieces.” Eh, really bad response.

Along with this front page story, the DTH published a pullout about the importance of transparency, a crucial part of any profession, especially those working in public relations.Fortunately, Morgan and Tenyotkin still are students who are learning their way around such public relations issues; unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like they are going to admit fault or defeat anytime soon.