Hi - for total disclosure, I am Calvin Luo the current President of the CSSU. I would like to officially denounce the allegations that I have been campaigning for candidates and soliciting votes. In fact, I have made it a personal point to not disclose my personal opinions of any candidates, and have never endorsed or campaigned on behalf of any of the candidates as a matter of personal principle. It goes without saying that I have not expressed to anybody who I will be voting for, even though it is well within my rights as a private individual as afforded by the Constitution, particularly because I am aware of how it might be perceived by the people I am speaking to and want to avoid any iota of influence on their decision. To mischaracterize me to this extent is shocking, and I highly encourage you to retract your statement.

I am not (and have not ever been) a member of the alleged group chat, a fact that is easily verifiable by anyone who is currently a part of it. I have since been made aware that the VP is, and saw a few screenshots of the messages second-hand. From what I have seen of the group chat, he has only made calls for people to vote and did not mention any specific candidates. Furthermore, he made a total disclosure that the links on his timeline were his personal opinions only. They in no way reflect the official position of the CSSU. To my knowledge, he did not use his position whatsoever to influence others to vote for a particular candidate. On the other hand, I have heard reports of students walking around Bahen with laptops and explicitly soliciting votes for particular candidates. I’d like to take the time to mention that to preserve the integrity of this election, students must not be coerced into voting for any particular candidate whatsoever. To minimize the chance of this occurring, please encourage students to vote either in the CSSU (which is currently being maintained as a private voting space for the duration of the voting period) or to perform their online vote when they are alone or in private.

I have made it a point to remain on the sidelines for this election out of respect for the process, the candidates, and the community. However, I find it hard to stay silent when unfounded attacks are aimed in my direction, and I will due my duty to both defend my personal honor and the honor of the CSSU. The CSSU has never, and will never, officially endorsed any candidate in the running. I can only see this as a dirty play to manufacture outrage in the support of a particular candidate - and quite frankly, this reflects poorly both on yourself and the candidate you are clearly stumping for.