IUSA party calls police over mix-up

A member of the Red Hot IU Student Association ticket called the IU Police Department after a verbal altercation between Red Hot and its 2006 IUSA election opponent Hoosier erupted Wednesday outside Ballantine Hall, said Lt. Jerry Minger, reading from a police report. When Sgt. Shannon Ramey and Sgt. Craig Munroe responded, they found no problem and people were leaving.\n"One (ticket) was given permission to be around a clock, the other was given permission to be around a kiosk," Minger said. "I think there was a mix-up in where they were supposed to be. \n"We had to send an officer over to negotiate and act as mediator."\nMinger said junior Steve Coulis, campaign manger of Red Hot, called IUPD to complain that the other ticket had set up on their designated sidewalk.\nMinger added that officers were unable to reach anyone at the Student Activities Office desk to clarify who had permission to be on the sidewalk.\nCoulis said an unrelated group -- specifically not members of Hoosier -- were blocking a section of sidewalk reserved for his ticket -- Red Hot, he said.\nHe said he called the police after he had visited the Student Activities Office, where he was advised to do so.\nHoosier campaign manager and junior Julie Aud said "it wasn't a Hoosier/Red Hot anything."\n"It was protestors who came with big signs of mangled babies ... I guess the Student Activities Office called IUPD because we had reserved the space," she said.\nAssistant Dean of Students Steve Veldkamp, via e-mail, confirmed that one ticket reserved the space by the clock tower near Woodburn and the other ticket reserved the space outside Ballantine. He did not specify which ticket reserved which spot.\nVeldkamp said he "wasn't aware of a verbal altercation," but "there was mention of some member of one of the parties standing in front of the other groups' tabling space."\nHoosier presidential candidate and junior Betsy Henke said she hadn't heard anything about a verbal disagreement between the two tickets. \n"We were passing out hot chocolate," she said. "We've definitely tried to keep a very clean campaign. We haven't been trying to do anything sneaky."\nRed Hot vice president of administration candidate Brett Stewart was unavailable for comment by press time.