By By Rob Tokanel, News Staff
At a Resident Student Association (RSA) meeting last night, recently elected RSA Vice President for Housing Services Matt Soleyn announced that he was suspending his campaign for the Student Government Association (SGA) presidency and endorsing a vote of ‘no confidence.’
‘The voting period for student body president ends this Saturday, and I hope that you all go online and vote no confidence,’ he said.
Following an agreement made at last week’s RSA meeting, Soleyn was expected to explain his intentions for the presidency if elected, and to clear up some seemingly contradictory statements he made to The News after another meeting several weeks ago.
In the March 19 issue of The News, Soleyn said he would maintain his RSA position, as well as SGA president, if he were elected. However, according to the minutes from an RSA election, he had previously said he would not accept the SGA position.
Several members of RSA who were present said Soleyn tried to avoid having to address the subject, first by making several motions to end the meeting before he had spoken, and then by avoiding the topic, digressing into a discussion about former President Ronald Reagan. When pressed to speak specifically to the issue of the SGA presidency, Soleyn announced the suspension of his campaign.
‘While it may have appeared that I lied to you all, that wasn’t the case … I apologize for not being decisive,’ he said. ‘I hadn’t come to a decision, but when I came here tonight, I have actually come to a decision to suspend my campaign.’
SGA senator Derek Miller said after the meeting that ‘it took [Soleyn] a while, but he did the right thing.’
SGA presidential candidate Ryan Fox said he was hesitant to believe that Soleyn’s statements were true. He said he thought the announcement may be part of his campaign strategy.
‘Throughout the campaign he’s argued that he was the better candidate, and it surprises me that someone who thinks he’s the better candidate resigned from the race,’ he said.
Soleyn’s announcement does not necessarily mean he has resigned, though. SGA Parliamentarian Chris Bourne said votes for Matt Soleyn would remain valid unless he formally announced a resignation from the campaign.
‘Technically, right now, all he did was suspend his campaign,’ he said. ‘With that, he’s still an official candidate. I assume he’s just not going to be actively campaigning.’
Fox said Soleyn was aware of that fact.
‘He knows as well as anyone else at this point his name isn’t removed from the ballot,’ he said.
Soleyn’s announcement came almost two days after SGA elections were supposed to be completed. While they were scheduled to end Monday night, a lack of voter turnout forced the Senate Nominations and Elections Committee to allow for a five-day extension of the polling period.
However, Bourne said that as of yesterday afternoon, only about 440 votes were needed to reach the 20 percent of the student body necessary to decide a winner in the election
If Soleyn were to officially resign his candidacy, Bourne said his votes would still count toward the required 20 percent threshold, but it would no longer be possible for him to win.
Soleyn said he only accepted the nomination in the first place because he feared that if Fox ran unopposed, an even smaller percentage of students would be interested in voting.
‘ ‘I thought I could really stir up some discussion on campus, and I think that a lot of the issues that students have had have come to light because of me providing the alternative voice,’ he said.
Fox said that regardless of Soleyn’s decision, he would see his own campaign through until voting closed.
‘It seems a little fishy, but I’ll be campaigning through the end, and I hope that students continue to vote,’ Fox said.
‘- News staff Jenna Duncan
contributed to this report.
