Last week, FUSA held a raffle in which two free passes for parking anywhere on campus for February were given away. Coincidently, two FUSA senators won the parking passes fair and square in the raffle.
A total of 78 raffle tickets were sold at $2 a piece and all proceeds were donated to the Special Olympics. Of the 38 students who entered, only six of them were FUSA senators.
Senate Chair Jennifer Cole ’06 said that it was a “coincidence” the two senators won the parking passes.
“The raffle has always been and will always be 100 percent open to every member of the sophomore, junior and senior classes,” said Cole. “Because it was a raffle, we kept all of the purchased raffle tickets in a zippered pouch, which was handed to Public Safety Officer Rob Didato at the drawing during the Senate meeting, and he himself drew the two winners.”
Since senators are students like everyone else, “they deserve to enjoy the same opportunities and chances as the students they represent receive,” said Cole.
Senator Ashley Toombs ’07 said she was excited to be one of the lucky raffle winners while also helping a charity.
“I don’t feel bad for winning the passes, because I paid two dollars and bought the ticket. I obviously didn’t pull my own name out of the bag, and I know that it was an honest competition,” said Toombs.
The other winner, Janet Reinhardt ’07, said her friends were “happy that somebody they knew won the raffle and it intrigued them all to enter it this month.”
Dan Kwiecien ’08 agreed that FUSA representatives should be able to participate in all fundraising events that are open to the student body.
“They should be able to win just like everyone else,” he said. “They shouldn’t be excluded.”
Some students do not mind that the senators won because they didn’t even realize the raffle was taking place early enough to enter.
“I don’t think a lot of people bought tickets because they did not know about it,” said Micheal Canzano ’07. “I know about everything, usually, but I don’t think people are interested in what FUSA has to offer.”
Taylor Murphy ’08 said she did not need the free pass.
“I don’t drive my car enough on campus to move my car around,” said Murphy. “I feel like I park anywhere on campus anyway.”
Joe Skingor ’08 said he feels the coincidence was a little strange, but believes that the winners should be able to keep the passes.
“As long as they didn’t cheat, if it was a fair thing,” he said.
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