University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) presidential candidate Jay Bundy was told yesterday he could not appeal $120 in elections fines to any administrative figures -- one day after UPUA elections commissioners advised him to.

Bundy received the fines for illegal canvassing in Leete Hall and for giving an interview to The Daily Collegian, which was considered campaigning before the assigned start date.

It's uncertain who handles the appeals process during elections because the UPUA will not be in control as student government until after Oct. 11.

After moving from the elections commission to Vice President for Student Affairs Vicky Triponey and landing with the Center for Student Engagement, the responsibility of handling appeals remains unclaimed.

With the option to appeal to the administration now closed, Bundy said he doesn't know who to appeal to and apparently no one else does either.

In response to the confusion, Nick Stathes, Undergraduate Student Government (USG) president, said the actions of the government that will replace his USG administration are "laughable."

"UPUA has always said they will be a student-run organization," Stathes said. "Obviously, individuals on the elections commission can't make decisions for themselves."

Andrew Reeve, chairman of the UPUA transition group, and Katie Vogel, a UPUA elections commissioner, said Tuesday that UPUA, as a student organization, is subject to the vice president of student affairs.

Ashley Hill, UPUA elections commissioner, said she was unaware of Bundy's referral to Triponey.

"The best place any student with a problem can go is student affairs," she said. "But I didn't tell him that. As far as I know, no one did."

Bundy said the confusion wouldn't silence his campaign.

"If we can't appeal, we will continue to make noise in public about how befuddled this entire process is," he said. "We have an elections commission with no accountability."

After being referred last night to Triponey, his requests were denied and forwarded to the Center for Student Engagement.

Christina Pillot, her administrative assistant, said Triponey had not learned of the appeal until yesterday.

"The first [Triponey] heard about the appeal was this morning in The Daily Collegian," Pillot said. "It came as a surprise that [Bundy] was referred to her. It is a student organization, and we are working to sort things out."

Though he originally said that he wanted no administrative involvement, Bundy said he could stand for a little intervention with elections days away.

"They keep passing the buck," he said. "We are going to knock on some doors in Old Main and let the administration know that they need to take an active interest in what's going on. If there's malpractice, they need to deal with it."

Felicia McGinty, associate vice president for student engagement, said the Center for Student Engagement would not be hearing appeals either, and that all jurisdiction lies in the hands of the elections commission.

"In the elections code, it says that their decision is final," McGinty said. "I'm not, and Dr. Triponey's not, empowered to reverse the decision. I wouldn't feel comfortable hearing the appeal. It opens up a question about fairness and bias."

McGinty said as the future adviser of UPUA, she will guide the elections commission, but ultimately, the issue is a student decision.

"We will offer to help and coach them," McGinty said.

Sara Snyder, UPUA elections commissioner, said she had no idea that the elections commission held the final say.

"No one from student engagement has told me that," she said. "I didn't think we were anticipating hearing appeals. Because it's not in the code, this is something we will talk about amongst ourselves."

Stathes said, in the past, USG elections code violation appeals have been referred to the USG Supreme Court, a student-led body. He said it is "utterly ridiculous" that a distinct policy for appeals was not included in the elections code.

Meanwhile, some presidential candidates understood the lack of specification in the elections code.

"The fact that they even offered him any sort of appeal in the first place is being generous," Jay Chamberlin, UPUA presidential candidate, said. "The elections commission should be the final authority. Jay's getting a lot of free press from this. There's a lot of benefits in violating codes like he has."