The Student Judiciary decided College of Letters and Sciences Representative Elect Leland Pan, who was accused of illegally canvassing in dorms, will retain his seat after determining evidence used against Pan was insufficient.
Allegations began after the petitioner, Samuel Seering, presented evidence in the form of a Facebook screenshot that he said proved Pan's alleged door-to-door canvassing within his dorm.
The screenshot included an exchange between Pan and Kyle Szarzynski where Pan said, ""I've just finished hitting my own dorm again and I think some of these people are ready to kill me,"" and mentioned ""political self?promotion to apolitical people.""
Seering said the evidence clearly showed Pan's violation of the UW-Madison Housing Policy, which prohibits campaigning in dorms.
The Student Judiciary said the screenshots alone did not suffice as ""clear and convincing evidence"" needed to find Pan guilty.
According to the SJ, in order to find Pan guilty of allegations against him, they would have to infer claims not explicitly stated in the Facebook conversation.
Because of this, the SJ said the evidence that Seering submitted was an insufficient platform on which to rest judgment.
During the original SJ hearing, Seering argued saying Pan's case was similar to a ruling made in 1988, in which the SJ panel disqualified a student candidate for canvassing in the Memorial Union.
The SJ said the 1988 case is not comparable to the current case because the panel found the student in violation of using the ASM office and equipment to promote his campaign.
In the current case there are no allegations that Pan exploited ASM resources for his benefit.
