Eric Mukherjee '09, the candidate for president of the Undergraduate Council of Students who was disqualified early Tuesday morning by UCS elections board, was drafted into the race by his friends and was initially unaware that he was running, the one-time candidate told The Herald.
Mukherjee had run on a platform of abolishing UCS and has said he would have attempted to "open a forum for creating a student government with actual credibility." He was disqualified by the elections board for failing to attend a mandatory information session and a subsequent candidates' meeting.
Christina Kim '07, the chair of the elections board, said in a statement Tuesday on behalf of the board that the violations might have been overlooked if the candidate had been acting "in good faith," but she noted that Mukherjee's campaign had been deceptive because the friend who started the campaign pretended to represent Mukherjee when, in fact, Mukherjee was unaware that he was even a candidate.
Ben Struhl '09, who said he was responsible for much of Mukherjee's campaign - and who represented Mukherjee in Friday's candidates debate at the Sharpe Refectory - said a "Draft Mukherjee" campaign began as something of a joke and involved about 30 of Mukherjee's friends.
"Everyone except me," Mukherjee said.
Mukherjee indicated at the time that he thought the platform of reforming UCS was "great" but that he did not want to be a candidate for UCS president himself, Struhl said.
Struhl and Whit Schroder '09 collected the required 400 signatures for Mukherjee and filed his candidacy for him. According to Kim, the e-mail address and phone number provided by the campaign to the elections board belonged to Struhl.
Mukherjee said he did not become aware that he had been entered into the race until he was contacted by The Herald last Wednesday night.
"We wanted to surprise Eric that he was running," Struhl said, adding that he and Schroder "weren't trying to deceive anybody."
Mukherjee, after learning of his candidacy, decided to go ahead with the campaign at that time.
"The thing was," Struhl said, "when he saw all the support behind his ideas, he was really excited to get into the race."
Mukherjee attended last night's UCS general body meeting in the New Dorm lounge to discuss the elections board's decision to disqualify him.
Ben Creo '07, a member of the elections board, said the decision had nothing to do with Mukherjee's platform and that the only job of the elections board - which is made up of former and current UCS members not running in any races this spring - was to ensure the legitimacy of the elections.
"What we care about is that this process is fair," Creo said, adding that allowing Mukherjee to run would have been unfair to candidates who had followed all the rules.
Creo said it was "within the purview of the elections board" to set any rules for the elections beyond those specified by the UCS code and that this included mandatory attendance at an information session and a meeting for candidates.
Though Struhl attended the candidates' meeting, Creo said Struhl could not be said to have been acting on Mukherjee's behalf because Mukherjee had not sent him.
"The idea of a proxy is, it's sent with consent," Creo said.
Struhl said Mukherjee had later said it was all right for Struhl to have acted as his proxy to the elections board.
"He didn't have any problem with it," Struhl said. "I don't know why they did."
Creo said the retroactive consent was irrelevant.
Mukherjee was reserved at last night's meeting, though he said the elections board was "doubly victimizing" him because he had already been unwillingly made a candidate by his friends in the first place.
"I still disagree with your decision," he said at the meeting.
Struhl said he believes Mukherjee had been disqualified because his platform was threatening to UCS and because he had strong support from students.
Both UCS members and those involved in Mukherjee's anti-UCS campaign said Mukherjee's campaign had gotten students interested in student government, at least for now.
"Simply by running, we've got people talking," Mukherjee said.
"I think it's irrelevant who was running," Schroder said. "I think the people who were voting were voting for the platform, not the candidate."
Kim said she was glad Mukherjee's campaign had brought so much student interest to the UCS elections - which began Tuesday at 5 p.m. and will continue until 5 p.m. today, when voting on MyCourses will close - and that it was "unfortunate" Mukherjee had to be disqualified from the race.
Also at last night's meeting, UCS members met with several members of the Corporation and briefly brought a number of issues to their attention, including the state of dormitories, the implementation of Banner and the recommendation of the Energy and Environmental Advisory Committee - released today - to make the University climate-neutral.
At the start of the meeting, UCS President John Gillis '07 asked for a moment of silence for the victims of Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech.
