On Wednesday, the Inter-Fraternity Council president submitted a statement to the Nexus responding to the Associated Students Elections Board’s allegations of bribery.

The following letter is written by Brendan Gonzalez, IFC president and second-year political science major.

I want to begin this by saying that I am not making this statement to spark an argument. I simply feel that with all of the misinformation that is circulating, the students should hear the truth and the facts.

The UCSB Inter-Fraternity Council strives to promote participation from our members in all aspects of student life, both on and off campus. This includes the recent Associated Students Elections. In order to encourage our members to perform their civic responsibility as students, IFC offered grants to chapters that achieved high voter turnout, which the chapter is required to use towards their philanthropic purposes. The IFC viewed this as a way to further two of its core principles- student participation and philanthropy in the local community.

The IFC has been unequivocally transparent about these grants. When it was brought to our attention that Associated Students Election Board was investigating the grants, the IFC issued a formal letter to Elections Board to dispel any rumors or misinformation that they may have received.

The IFC felt comfortable doing so because we know that we have not broken any rules or regulations. There is absolutely no clause in Associated Students Legal Code that prohibits such programs. Nor is there any such clause in Office of Student Life (OSL) Statement of Regulations, which every campus organization is required to follow. 

IFC did not develop this program without consultation from our advisor who also serves as the Director of OSL. He recalled that many other UCSB campus organizations have used similar programs to incentivize voter turnout in AS elections.

Many other administrative staff, who have extensive knowledge of AS Legal Code and the OSL Statement of Regulations, are well aware of the grant and have absolutely no concerns about it being a violation of existing policies.

The Inter-Fraternity Council will not engage with people who call our organization’s integrity into question. Again, my only hope from this statement is that the students hear the truth and are able to see that the Inter-Fraternity Council has not broken any rules, nor is it afraid to be 100 percent transparent and truthful about what has transpired.

Therefore, I will be attending AS Senate meeting tonight at 6:30 p.m. in Corwin Pavilion, so that Senate can hear the truth and the facts, rather than the rumors and misconceptions that have been spread around campus over the past 24 hours.

Sincerely,

Brendan D. Gonzalez

Inter Fraternity Council President

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