UPDATED: Feb. 10, 2017 at 6:10 p.m.

A decision regarding Student Association President Eric Evangelista’s possible constitutional violation was again delayed, as the Judicial Review Board had not made a decision as of Monday night’s assembly meeting.

The JRB has placed Evangelista under investigation for appointing a cabinet member without opening applications to the student body. Matthew VanDemark, chair of the JRB, said the investigation was extended to allow time to collect more testimonies. The board planned to meet Monday night to review the collected information and possibly make a decision.

The JRB plans to make its decision public and provide an official report in time for next week’s assembly meeting on Feb. 13. The involved parties, including Evangelista, and the SA assembly will be informed of the board’s decision first.

VanDemark declined to comment further on the investigation as it is still open.

Evangelista was not present at the Monday night’s SA meeting.

The JRB previously planned to make its decision on Monday, prior to the assembly meeting. Before that, it had planned to make its decision on Feb. 3 but delayed doing so.

The alleged constitutional violation comes from not acting on a request from the assembly to send a campus-wide email calling for applications for a public relations co-chair position, according to a copy of the violation notice obtained by The Daily Orange.

Evangelista told SA members in a Facebook post on Jan. 13 that he intended to send a campus-wide email calling for applications for the positions of PR co-chair and community engagement co-chair, but that email was not sent, according to the violation notice.

Evangelista then nominated Nicole Sherwood, a senior public relations major, to the position. The assembly raised concerns over the nomination at the Jan. 23 meeting, requesting that Evangelista send an email to the student body prior to the next meeting on Jan. 30, according to the notice. When he did not send that email, he might have violated the SA constitution.

The violation states that not complying with an Assembly request is a “clear Constitutional violation per Article IV (4.2) which states: The President shall be responsible for executing the decisions of the Assembly.”

Evangelista appeared in front of the Judicial Review Board on Jan. 30 for a judicial hearing relating to the investigation. Evangelista also said in a statement to The Daily Orange last month that he looked forward to “working to put (the Judicial Review Board’s) concerns to rest so I may continue my work in serving the Syracuse University community.”

CLARIFICATION: In a previous version of this post, the source for the detail reporting the Student Association assembly requested that Eric Evangelista send an email to the student body prior to the meeting on Jan. 30 was unclear.

Published on February 6, 2017 at 11:03 pm

Contact Delaney: dovanwey@syr.edu