By Tara Conry

Hours before the start of elections, the fate of David Leveille and Kathleen Hunker’s place on the presidential ballot rested in the hands of the Student Government Association (SGA) and many angry students who demanded to be heard. The three-hour SGA meeting on Tuesday night attracted more students than any other this academic year and pitted students against government in a power struggle over who rules the school.

At the opening of the meeting, Vice President Ahmad Mostafa addressed the crowd, asking that they “try to remain civil.”

Leveille had been removed as a member of the Senate, after the Ethics and Conduct Committee found that he had two unexcused absences, which according to SGA’s parlimentarian, Bradley Smallberg, is grounds for removal as stated by SGA’s constitution.

Adam Doyno, chair of the Ethics and Conduct Committee and a presidential candidate said Leveille had accrued two unexcused absences last semester and was granted a second chance by the Senate under the conditions that double his office hours and face dismissal without the chance of reinstatement if he received two more.

“It’s unjust,” Leveille said. ” I’m being discriminated by the administration and factions of the SGA.”

Leveille said there has never been a minority president in the history of the University and he came to the meeting prepared to fight the allegations of his excessive absences and secure his place on the ballot.

The debate over Leveille’s position in SGA was mentioned within the first five minutes of the meeting with a dispute over whether Leveille should be permitted to sit at the table with the rest of the officers. He was permitted to stay in order to move on to the issues at hand.

The Senate tried to conduct other business, but when Kandice Lavalas, senior geology major, was given the opportunity to address the Senate, all other matters came to a screeching hault, allowing Leveille’s case to step into the spotlight. “When a government limits your options, your only choice may not be the best one for you, but the best one for them,” said Lavalas, who accused SGA of failing to follow its own guidelines and represent the student body.

Lavalas said the SGA members were selfish, paranoid and corrupt, and only concerned with their own agendas instead of what is best for the students.

“It is not a matter of us not listening to the students,” Laura Giunta, a sophomore senator, said. “A person should be held accountable for their actions.”

After Leveille’s absences had been reported by the Ethics and Conduct Committee, the case was handed over to the Rules Committee, which held a meeting Monday night to vote on whether Leveille should be stripped of his power and wiped off the ballot. With five members excused from the meeting because of previous obligations, a vote by the remaining five Senators on the committee decided that Leveille should be dismissed. The meeting minutes were sent to the Senate to be approved or overturned.

“The Rules Committee did the best they could with what they had,” said former Senator Andy Valentin. He believes SGA did not follow their own rules in this case.

Valentin, a senior entrepreneurship and finance major, said the SGA constitution does not give the Rules Committee the power to remove a person from the Senate without conducting an investigation, a step, which he said the SGA conveniently skipped.

“Everyone knew that OJ [Simpson] was guilty, but he got his day in court,” Valentin said. “Dave never did.”

“Andy [Valentin] was quoting sections of the constitution and conveniently leaving out sections,” Doyno, who argued that anyone who read the whole excerpt in the constitution would see that Leveille’s absences called for immediate and permanent dismissal, said.

“Everybody has a right to a trial,” Hunker, Leveille’s running mate, said. “Dave was denied his because there were not enough members of the Rules Committee there.”

Leveille took the floor in his own defense, arguing that his absence from a meeting of the Apropriations Committee on April 10 was the result of a canceled flight. He said he had notified the chair of the department before he left to spend the weekend at a Hofstra Haitian Organization conference in Florida, saying he would be late to the meeting. When his travel plans changed, he missed the entire meeting and failed to contact his chair within the 24 hours of the meeting, violating guidelines in the constitution.

At the meeting, Leveille cited several reasons for not calling SGA members, saying he lost the telephone numbers and left his phone in his hotel room.

“Dave’s story was changing,” said Doyno, who recalled Leveille’s original statement at a hearing in the SGA office that he had the cell phone but the battery is dead.

The Senate then opened the floor to students in the galley, composed mostly of members of the African Peoples Organization, the Hofstra Haitian Organization and the Hofstra Organization of Latin Americans, who demonstrated unanimous support of Leveille and outrage toward SGA, targeting specific members.

“What happens in the SGA office is not fair,” Priscilla Esfandiary, the president of HOLA, said. “I hear it because my office is right across the hall.”

Esfandiary also said that she sees Leveille working long hours in the office and proceeded to point fingers at other Senators, accusing them of never showing their face in Student Government affairs.

Other students threw verbal punches at the senators and demanded an open vote.

“Anyone who votes against Dave is worthless,” Vanessa Cudabac, a member of Students Against Injustice, said. “We are all here and we’ll tell everyone.”

The members were asked to vote on whether to cast their decisions by an open or secret ballot. A slight majority favored the open ballot, but sensing that the SGA members were being threatened, Mostafa, who chaired the meeting, insisted the vote be conducted in secrecy. This decision backlashed with students in the galley screaming “that’s shady!” and “we counted!”

At the head of the unruly crowd, Esfandiary, stormed onto the Senate floor without permission and barged in on the officers as they were counting the votes. She refused to move and watched them review each ballot.

“Tonight was like mob rule,” Niema Mansouri, the chair of the SGA Spirit Committee, said. “The senators were afraid to vote.”

Mansouri added that in the past students who attended the meetings expressed their opinions according to the rules and conducted themselves with dignity, but these students were out of control.

As third hour of the meeting lagged on, Ben Solis, comptroller and presidential candidate announced that the vote did not accurately reflect the opinions of the senators because there was confusion in how the question was worded. Rather than conducting another vote, the Senate unanimously agreed to overturn Leveille’s second absence and keep his name on the election ballot.

“The right thing was done, finally,” said Esfandiary, who used the moments after the decision was announced to say only Solis and Leveille had a chance of winning the elections.

Doyno, who was one of the targets of Esfandiary’s verbal assaults, said the Senate was unable to effectively conduct business because of the threats of Leveile supporters.

“It was a false representation of the student body,” Doyno said. “The students of these organizations supported Dave from the beginning.”

There were a handful of students not associated with APO, H20 and HOLA, such as Danielle Lemay, a sophomore drama major, who was less concerned with Leveille’s ticket status.

Lemay said, “I just want to know what more important things SGA could have been doing for students than wasting our time with this nonsense.”

SGA senators debate on Laveille´s place on the presidential ballot before a large student turnout. (Tara ConryThe Chronicle)