Former SG president-elect officially files appeal
Former Student Body President-elect Moneer Kheireddine filed an appeal for a court decision last week that disqualified him and his running mate, Shaquille Kent.
The ticket originally won the popular vote with 5,385 of the 8,636 votes cast. But after five weeks of reviewing grievances while students were left in limbo, the Student Government (SG) Supreme Court found Kheireddine’s campaign in violation of “abusing the official capacity of their position (in an employee of the university) for their own personal campaign.”
The appeal went to the Dean of Students, Danielle McDonald, who said that she plans to have it reviewed in time for the inauguration scheduled for Friday at 5 p.m.
Kheireddine said he has not yet sought legal counsel to help with the appeal, but he is getting help.
Student Government Advising, Training and Operations did not respond to The Oracle’s request to obtain the letter of appeal submitted by Kheireddine.
The grievance accused Dika Ezevillo, a member of their campaign staff, of wearing an official USF name tag while actively campaigning on multiple occasions. The court determined that he was functioning in his official capacity at the time and abused his position because it was something not all students would have access to.
The opinion stated that it was not required for his actions to have impacted the vote in order for it to be an abuse of his position.
“We have a wide variety of students working with us tirelessly every day to submit evidence and work on building a stronger case for the appeal,” Kheireddine said.
Student Body President-elect Ryan Soscia said he will accept McDonald’s decision when it comes, even if it reinstates Kheireddine.
“I’m confident in the system and I’m confident that Logan and I, and our campaign, did things the right way,” he said. “We’ve made every effort to follow the rules and trust the processes. And that’s how we’ve gotten to this point.
“It takes one more week of trusting the process. Having this limbo isn’t good for anybody.”