Warren College Student Council President-elect Daniel Watts surrendered his case after being twice disqualified from his position, announcing his decision at the start of his May 19 hearing of the WCSC judicial board. The board continued the hearing, finding Watts guilty of violating elections bylaws and disqualifying him from the elections by a 4-0-0 vote.
Tim Alexander, who had garnered the second-highest number of votes during the WCSC elections, will now be taking the position of WCSC president. Had the board ruled in favor of Watts, WCSC Vice President Internal Jessica Kepford would have assumed the duties of WCSC president once Watts resigned.
Watts resigned his case due to a conflict of interest having arose earlier on the day of May 19, when he was elected to the position of opinion co-editor of The UCSD Guardian for the 2003-04 academic year.
“”I think he did what was in his best interest and did what he felt was right. But in terms of the hearing, it didn’t really affect us,”” said WCSC former president Donald Povieng, who announced that his term ended with the May 20 announcement of the board’s decision. “”We still needed to figure out if he had violated those bylaws.””
Plaintiff Crystal Kitamura had filed a grievance against Watts on April 11, claiming that Watts had been in violation of bylaws, stating that candidates may not use “”Warren College offices, services, enterprises or equipment including computers, paints, stationary and/or logo.””
Watts left midway through the hearing after announcing his withdrawal from the case and the elections process as a whole. Watts claimed that he could have won the case based on several grounds, including that board members, who had renewed their term until Watts’ case was decided, were not allowed to do so, and claimed that he had, in effect, been president since sixth week of spring quarter, making the current judicial board hearing illegal. However, Watts presented no evidence and brought no witnesses as he went on to announce his resignation.
“”I don’t think he gave the plaintiff the proper respect he should have,”” Povieng said. “”We only got the facts from one side. In some sense, this made our decision easier.””
Kitamura argued that Watts had broken the bylaw in question by using computers in the Warren College Television studio, and that WCTV was a part of Earl Warren College. After Watts’ departure, board member Kirsten Bowen questioned both Kitamura and Lisa Root, Warren College assistant residential dean and witness for Kitamura, asking them whether computers were used in the production of Watts’ show. Both answered in the affirmative. Bowen expressed regret that Watts was not present to answer the question.
According to both Watts and WCTV intern Scott Jennings, there are two computers in the WCTV studio but neither are used for the production of “”Perfect Vision.”” Watts’ show uses a Videonics video character generator, which is used to title the live call-in show and post the studio’s phone number.
Alexander, who did not participate or attend the hearings regarding Watts’ case, said he felt WCSC had done its best to handle the case.
“”It seemed that everybody was making their best efforts by putting in time and energy to hold a fair trial and make a fair decision,”” Alexander said.
Alexander’s goals for presidency include implementing the newly drafted Warren College constitution by having students vote on passing it in a special election to be held fall quarter 2003, at which time he also plans to propose a referendum that would bring more money into WCSC in order to avoid budget problems faced by the former council.
[Ed. Note: Watts is associate opinion editor at the UCSD Guardian.]
