JSS Student Council Mired in Controversy

Campaign Violations and Questionable Council Spending Create Concern

Not unlike its YCSC counterpart, the Thursday April 2 JSS election had its share of controversy. JSS does not have an official constitution, therefore campaign regulations were set forth during an impromptu meeting. One of the candidates, JSS Sophomore Class Representative Ora Funzfvna who ran for Vice President, took certain actions that the YCSC Student Court later deemed "immoral and unethical campaign conduct."

During the course of his campaign, Ora Funzfvna went door-to-door speaking to JSS students. He learned that many of them had not yet received their annual JSS gifts. JSS Vice President Alan Epstein and Treasurer Ora Ahdut were responsible for distributing the gifts, bags bearing the JSS emblem. Funzfvna went to Ahdut’s room to inform him of this discovery, but Ahdut was at the YCDS Spring production Sleuth at the time. Ahdut left behind an unlocked dorm room, an unsuspecting roommate, and a corner filled with JSS bags.

Funzfvna entered the room, took the bags in question and proceeded to his own room where he filled the bags with papers that said "Vote Ora Funzfvna for JSS Vice President." Using a JSS student list, Funzfvna then proceeded to rooms of students, handing out the slogan filled bags. He allegedly told them to look in the bag for his sign, and to vote for him. This implied that the bags, which were purchased with JSS funds, were part of his campaign.

Funzfvna maintained that as the Sophomore Class Representative, he was taking initiative and doing the students a great service by distributing their gifts. He said, "Had I not been running for Vice President, I would have been just doing my job, but since I was, it was considered unethical."

Unsure how to handle the situation, Ofer Melamed, JSS President consulted with the YCSC Student Court which informed Melamed that the matter lay completely in his jurisdiction. As a friend of Funzfvna, Melamed felt that it would be difficult to make an impartial decision on his own. He therefore convened a committee of four judges, whose names have been withheld, to make a ruling on the situation.

Funzfvna was not present when the judges met, however, his opponent Eton Wienstock was. Funzfvna said, "I was upset that I wasn’t at the meeting but couldn’t do anything about it because I had family engagements at the time."

The final decision was not to disqualify Funzfvna from the elections, rather to publicize his actions in the form of a letter presented to and read by all JSS students who voted. Melamed remarked, "Personally I felt that Mr. Funzfvna’s actions were unethical…I was expecting a more severe punishment than the one placed on him, but it was done in a fair way."

Ultimately Funzfvna lost the election.