Letter to the Editor: Eberhart defends election unfairness claims

MSU Students,

I would like to start off by thanking you, the MSU community for the tremendous support I have received through emails, messages on social media, and people stopping me on campus that were happy someone was taking a stand against the MSSA Election “corruption”. I put corruption in quotes because Editor in Chief of the MSU Reporter, Matthew Eberline called it as he saw it in my letter last week and I couldn’t agree more. The current MSSA President Rayani came out strong against me in his response on Tuesday. President Rayani is quoted saying that “he (Rayani) objects to much of the tone and the content of the piece (Eberhart’s piece)”. This is not a shock to me because Vice President Ruiz was quoted saying “MSSA president Rayani and I have tried to work with all parties involved and with the different commissions in efforts to have a fair election.”. Not one person on the Accountability Party’s platform was worked with by either President Rayani or VP Ruiz. It does not shock me that President Rayani didn’t like my tone because why would anyone want corruption that happened on their watch to be exposed? The excuses made by President Rayani embarrass me as a student of MSU because as the future leaders of our world we should look to solve the problems, not to deflect blame. President Rayani also disagreed with my take on the campaigning guidelines being discriminatory. Head of the Elections Commission, Connor Martin, said these rules are “set by the Department of Residential Life”. In an email with Vice President of Student Affairs, David Jones, I was told that these rules were developed in partnership with MSSA. I encourage President Rayani to look at where the rules come from before making statement lashing out at my tone and content. On a side note it was brought to my attention that the MSU Reporter was accused of publishing my letter due to the fact that they had their budget cut. This is absurd and out of line. The MSU Reporter is an independent paper and should be treated as such. Any speculation otherwise is uncalled for. We the students have a voice and we won’t be shut out.

Thank you again for the support.

–Aaron Eberhart