Controversy kicks off election

At the start of the annual election for the IU Board of Trustees, controversy has arisen over a mass e-mail sent by a supporter of John Nash, a candidate for the board and the current president of Irwin Financial Corporation.\nJamie Belanger, a financial analyst for Proctor and Gamble, and a fellow candidate for the board, received two mass e-mails from C. Randall Powell, assistant dean and director of placement for the business school, asking the recipients, all of whom were recent IU graduates, to vote for Nash.\nBelanger, whose e-mail address was in the list, is upset that Powell could use an e-mail list that is not available to everyone. He believes it's a violation of policy of the University's information technology resources.\n"I really think the election is turning into a contest to see which candidate has more friends," Belanger said.\nNash asked Powell to send the e-mails, as well as letters supporting him.\n"I don't think Randy felt like he was violating any rules," Nash said.\nPowell's mass e-mail, sent to nearly 700 IU graduates, were all from his address book, not a list supplied by the business school, Powell said.\n"In my opinion at the time, I thought it was appropriate," Powell said. Powell didn't believe he was violating university policy when he sent out the e-mails.\n"I've now been advised that that was not the best judgement," Powell said.\nThe Alumni Association, however, isn't taking action because the policy being violated isn't its policy.\n"They're almost condoning this," Belanger said.\nKen Beckley, the president of the Alumni Association, believes it's not the association's duty to watch over campaigning issues in trustee elections.\n"How could we as an association put ourselves into an association of what constitutes campaigning and what doesn't constitute campaigning?" Beckley said. \nAbout five years ago, the Alumni Association had guidelines in place to govern campaigning but got rid of the policy because of legal issues that could arise.\n"The University Council at the time advised us that the association was putting itself in some kind of legal jeopardy," Beckley said. \nCurrently, there are only three guidelines that govern the trustee race -- one of those being alumni labels and lists, which would include e-mail lists -- may not be released to candidates or their supporters by the alumni association.\n"How they obtain lists, whether they are U.S. mail addresses or email addresses, that's totally up to the ingenuity of the candidates and its supporters," Beckley said. "There are some candidates that are going to be far more aggressive."\nAlthough the use of mass e-mail lists may not be a violation of University policy, using the indiana.edu address for campaigning purposes may be a violation.\n"I believe this is probably not incidental personal use," IU legal counsel, Dorothy Frapwell said. "It was inappropriate to use the indiana.edu e-mail address."\nBut Belanger's problem with the mass e-mails is not necessarily the use of the indiana.edu e-mail address, but the number of e-mail addresses Powell had at his disposal.\n"Even though I think Mr. Powell should have used another e-mail account to send this message, I don't think that is the larger issue," Belanger said.\nBut Frapwell disagrees that this was a problem, arguing anyone can get a list of e-mail addresses.\n"My understanding is that this was a list that he put together," Frapwell said.\nBelanger is not planning on taking legal action or to even take it to the University.\n"I think the damage is already done," Belanger said.\nNash believes that the issue is a gray area that needs looked at by the University.\n"I think it's a learning experience for everyone involved in the campaign," Nash said. He believes the University needs to find "an appropriate way to approach this when they're trying to support candidates for the trustee election."\nBelanger and Nash are two of eight candidates running for this year's position on the board of trustees.\nThe six other candidates are Robert B. Cummins, senior vice president of Robert Bosch Co.; Raymond W. Nicholson, director emeritus for St. Mary's Medical Center; C. Duane O'Neal, attorney; Ray Richardson, attorney; Bill Riley, fiscal policy analysis for Indiana Department of Education; and David D. Welker, chief executive officer and president of Walker Enterprises, LLC.\nEach year, a position on the board becomes vacant. There are a total of nine trustees, six appointed by the governor, one of those being a student, and the remaining three being voted on by the University's alumni.\nThis year, almost 435,000 ballots will be mailed out to all living graduates, with probably 10 percent filled out and sent back, Beckley said.\nThe process begins early in the year where each candidate must obtain 100 signatures of IU graduates and submit those signatures to the University librarian by April 1 of the year the election is being held.\nOnce the signatures are verified and counted, the ballots are sent out to the IU alumni.\n"That's where we're at right now," said Harold Shaffer, the coordinator of the trustee election. "The ballots are being sent out by the mailing service in Indianapolis."\nAll of the ballots must be filled out and sent back by June 29 of this year, the day the votes are tallied.\nOnce the votes are counted, the winner is announced in the lobby of the main library.\n"The public is welcome to come in and witness," Shaffer said.