Student Senate president is relieved from her duties after falsifying election documents
Jess Lueck, Copy Editor
Student Senate President Becca Larson was removed from her student government position and all representations associated with Anoka-Ramsey after discrepancies were found involving her original election documents.
A member of Student Senate discovered the falsified document while reviewing whether Larson would be eligible to run for a third-term as president.
It is stated in the Student Senate bylaws that no member can serve for more than two full years, or four terms.
Larson was elected as president initially in Sept. 2015 for the 2015-16 school year and was then reelected for the current school year. She claimed that her first term as president was interim, and therefore did not count as a full term, allowing her to run for another.
Members of Student Senate reviewed the meeting minutes from the Sept. 2, 2015, the meeting where Larson was elected, to see if her claim was true.
Student Senate has a shared drive, referred to by members as pub data. Executive board members are able to add, edit, and delete documents. Senate documents from previous years are housed in the pub data drive.
“I wanted to look at the wording again from the Sept. 2 meeting minutes, so on the pub data I went and looked and the minutes were modified, and it was interesting because the word interim was typed in there,” said one anonymous source.
The word “interim” was not on a print out of the meeting minutes supplied to Student Senate by Joyce Traczyk, their advisor.
Multiple sources involved in the Student Senate spoke with The Campus Eye under the premise of anonymity. Sources asked to remain anonymous to avoid conflict within the government body. Public meeting records were also used to verify information.
To confirm suspicions that it was Larson who had changed the document, Director of Student Development and Engagement Michael Opoku contacted IT to verify who modified the document.
The IT investigation uncovered that it was Larson’s star ID that had made the changes to the minutes. This information remained confidential until Larson’s election interview.
The Student Senate Election Committee had recently decided to add an interview to the election process, to ensure that the candidates knew enough about senate and would be active members.
“We didn’t want the candidate to not be active or not really know about what goes on because there is a lot of decisions that come to us that we make as a senate,” said a senate member.
Larson had her interview on March 24, just a few days after the falsification was discovered.
The election committee presented Larson with the original and modified documents at her interview. She denied knowing anything about the discrepancy.
After the interview concluded, the committee excused her to deliberate on her eligibility. One member aware of the IT investigation, told the rest of the committee members that Larson was proved to be the one that had changed the document.
A unanimous vote then decided that the incident was grounds for immediate removal and that Larson should immediately pack her things and leave the office.
It is stated in the Student Senate bylaws that any unethical act will result in immediate removal.
After Larson’s removal the current Student Senate Vice President, Anna Ewing, stepped up as president. Student Senate bylaws state that if the current president cannot fulfill their duties then the vice president will step up until a formal election is held.
The following week, at an already scheduled Student Senate election, Elijah Muhammad was elected as the Student Senate president for the 2017-18 school year, and Javiv Anglo was elected as vice president. The voter turnout was 135 students.
Ewing will complete this school year as president. At a recent Student Senate meeting, members passed a motion positioning Anglo as vice president for the rest of the semester.
Since her removal, Larson sent a letter to the president of Anoka-Ramsey, Kent Hanson, claiming that Student Senate had handled the situation poorly. Student Senate members followed up with Hanson and no further action was taken.
Multiple attempts by The Campus Eye staff to get a comment from Larson were unsuccessful.
Additional reporting by Dalton Hanken