“I misinterpreted one of the rules for better or for worse.”

This thought went through junior political science major and current candidate for Student Senate President Olivia Schultz-Falandes’ mind when she realized her “creative campaign strategy” was, unknowingly, according to her, in direct violation of Senate rules regarding her campaign advertisements.

Schultz-Falandes walked door-to-door and hung door handle advertisements with information about her platform Sunday, March 18, with the intention of raising awareness of her campaign for student senate president against junior Tyler McCoy.

According to Schultz-Falandes, she was unaware that placing the door hanger ads was in contradiction with the Student Senate advertising campaign rule that states “campaign materials can only be posted on university bulletin boards.”

After her first class Monday, March 19, Lawrence Stratton, Student Senate advisor, pulled her aside to inform her of a meeting due to the misconduct of her campaign related to the door hangers she created and posted.

Within just five minutes, Schultz-Falandes, who says she “doesn’t try to cause trouble,” had gone from class to a room of administration members and was facing the threat of disqualification.

“I didn’t think the door hangers would cause any harm – I felt that they were easily removable, they weren’t being plastered or fixed to the door in any way,” Schultz-Falandes said. “I personally felt that if people didn’t like them, they could easily remove them, or if someone had a problem they could personally approach me about it.”

The other rules state that all materials must be approved by the associate dean of students as well as that campaign advertisements must be kept at least 25 feet away from election tables. A violation of these campaign rules, though the rules themselves are not listed in the Senate’s constitution, is grounds for disqualification of a candidate according to Student Senate president TJ DeNofrio.

Additionally, Pat Bristor, associate dean of students, sent an email to Schultz-Falandes informing her that she was only permitted to hang up campaign signs in locations where other flyers and posters were hung. In Bristor’s email to Schultz-Falandes, she directly stated, “Please do not hang on doors, glass and bare walls.”

According to a memo written by DeNofrio and distributed to those in attendance at the Student Senate meeting Tuesday, he said that Schultz-Falandes “opted to go against the Associate Deans’ ruling” by the door handle advertisements.

DeNofrio, sophomore pre-law major and political science minor, strategized with the Senate as well as Stratton on the handling of Schultz-Falandes’ misconduct. According to DeNofrio, the decision to allow Schultz-Falandes to continue to be on the ballot and simply to postpone the vote was largely his, though he did seek the council of other members as well as the advisor.

“It was down to my personal judgment on what to do and at this point, I concluded that it was best to use this as an example of what not to do,” DeNofrio said. “Almost as a learning experience. That way we can protect from or at least curtail this happening again in the future.”

DeNofrio stated that postponing the vote was essential to help facilitate “clarification” on the Schultz-Falandes violation matter.

Schultz-Falandes said she misinterpreted what Bristor said in the email, but moving forward in the campaign, she plans to continue her usual campaign strategies.

“Moving forward from this, I am going to make sure that I follow the appropriate policies – I had no intentions of causing any problems with my door hangers, it was just out of the desire to get out to students in a creative way, and likely, I will probably continue to use the door hangers but only to distribute to students,” Schultz-Falandes said. “I will make them aware that they shouldn’t hang them up on their doors but if they would like to post them on Facebook to get the word out or something similar to that, they’re more than welcome to do so.”

Schultz-Falandes said poor communication played a crucial factor in her misconduct and should be looked into further so it can be prevented in the future.

“Because of this violation, it has caused some concerns with the election itself – the policy in place is to ensure fair elections and to make sure everyone has equal playing field and running for whatever position that they might be running for,” Schultz-Falandes said. “I think there has been a lot of clarification issues and miscommunication regarding election rules and procedures, and I think it would be wise to clarify these to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again.” 

Schultz-Falandes added that the situation could have been taken care of in a more effective fashion.

“The way I see it, I felt that it was pretty clear what I would use [the door hangers] for, so I felt that at the time, someone could have told me not to hang them on doors,” she said. “I felt that could’ve been handled better than being pulled into a meeting the day of the election.”

Schultz-Falandes took credit for her mistake but explained that her door hangers were to gain positive feedback in the running election.

“I am not trying to throw anyone under the bus whatsoever on any sides – I do accept some blame on my part for not clarifying this with the appropriate people, but I also do feel that the hangers did not do anyone any kind of harm whatsoever and that I was just trying to campaign honestly and vigorously, trying to get the word out,” Schultz-Falandes said. “It was done with completely good intentions and out of the desire to talk to students and get the word out that I was running.”

The elections were postponed from the original date of Monday, March 19 to the following week, March 26 to the 28. Voting will be held in the Beehive during lunch, as well as dinner in Benedum Dining Hall.