Issue date: 4/19/07 Section: Campus News

Media Credit: Courtesy of Eric Mukherjee Eric Mukherjee '09

Eric Mukherjee '09, the candidate for president of the Undergraduate Council of Students who was disqualified early Tuesday morning by UCS elections board, was drafted into the race by his friends and was initially unaware that he was running, the one-time candidate told The Herald.

Mukherjee had run on a platform of abolishing UCS and has said he would have attempted to "open a forum for creating a student government with actual credibility." He was disqualified by the elections board for failing to attend a mandatory information session and a subsequent candidates' meeting.

Christina Kim '07, the chair of the elections board, said in a statement Tuesday on behalf of the board that the violations might have been overlooked if the candidate had been acting "in good faith," but she noted that Mukherjee's campaign had been deceptive because the friend who started the campaign pretended to represent Mukherjee when, in fact, Mukherjee was unaware that he was even a candidate.

Ben Struhl '09, who said he was responsible for much of Mukherjee's campaign - and who represented Mukherjee in Friday's candidates debate at the Sharpe Refectory - said a "Draft Mukherjee" campaign began as something of a joke and involved about 30 of Mukherjee's friends.

"Everyone except me," Mukherjee said.

Mukherjee indicated at the time that he thought the platform of reforming UCS was "great" but that he did not want to be a candidate for UCS president himself, Struhl said.

Struhl and Whit Schroder '09 collected the required 400 signatures for Mukherjee and filed his candidacy for him. According to Kim, the e-mail address and phone number provided by the campaign to the elections board belonged to Struhl.

Mukherjee said he did not become aware that he had been entered into the race until he was contacted by The Herald last Wednesday night.

"We wanted to surprise Eric that he was running," Struhl said, adding that he and Schroder "weren't trying to deceive anybody."

Mukherjee, after learning of his candidacy, decided to go ahead with the campaign at that time.

"The thing was," Struhl said, "when he saw all the support behind his ideas, he was really excited to get into the race."

Mukherjee attended last night's UCS general body meeting in the New Dorm lounge to discuss the elections board's decision to disqualify him.

Continued...

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