Though the campaigning period in this year's UPUA elections has been shortened to just 10 days, the presidential candidates haven't seen a shortage of submitted campaign violations.
Still, University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) Internal Development Chairman Justin Waddell (senior-economics) said the total of violations has not topped last year's.
"I expected a lot more violations and people being deceitful," he said. "There has been some behavior I haven't been very impressed with."
Within the past nine days of campaigning, 10 violations have been submitted against candidates running for UPUA president and vice president.
Only one of the 10 has been determined valid by the UPUA elections commission. The rest have been either dismissed or withdrawn. Presidential candidate Dan Kennedy (junior-history) is the only candidate who has been sanctioned for a violation, regarding campaigning before the official campaigning period.
Other dismissed violations filed have dealt with campaigning in the HUB-Robeson Center and campaigning before the official campaigning period began.
Presidential candidate Gavin Keirans (sophomore-business administration) has had four violations filed against his campaign thus far, but all have been dropped, UPUA Deputy Commissioner for Advocacy and Administration Courtney Rodriguez (senior-crime, law and justice) said.
Presidential candidate Pete Sowa (sophomore-finance and education) has had three violations filed against his campaign thus far, including one regarding the Nittany Lion. Two have been dismissed; the violation involving the Nittany Lion appearing in the candidate's promotional video was withdrawn.
Presidential candidate Jordan Cascino (junior-communication arts and sciences) is the only candidate to have no violations filed against him thus far.
A violation withdrawn yesterday alleged that the Nittany Lion mascot may have breached university policy AD07 by appearing in a campaign video for Sowa and his running mate Matt Sabo (sophomore-economics).
The policy states that the "use of University names, symbols and registered graphic devices by any person other than the University" must be approved by the University Licensing Committee. The policy also states that university employees cannot consent to the use of university names, symbols and registered graphic devices without approval from the University Licensing Committee.
According to the policy, "the Nittany Lion (name and graphic representation)" falls under this jurisdiction.
The video is posted on Sowa and Sabo's campaign Web site, sowasabo.com.
Although Rodriguez said the violation "did go against the policy," the violation has been withdrawn by the person who submitted it.
Rodriguez could not say who submitted the violation.
Nittany Lion James Sheep could not comment.
Curtis White, Penn State's head cheerleading coach, said yesterday he hadn't heard about the violation, adding that there is no precedent for such a situation.
Associate Athletic Director of Marketing and Communication Greg Myford said last night that he hadn't heard about the violation.
"Given that the accusation has been dropped already, I would assume that whoever brought it initially has concluded that it's in no one's best interest to pursue it," he said.
