As far as I can tell, they only ever enforce this stuff against publications (The Heuristic Squelch was once unceremoniously dumped from the ASUC for trashing a senate candidate in an issue about 11 years ago. It lost funding for a full year and nearly went bankrupt).
You first need to feed it some ball-growing formula.
It's actually a bit unclear. Groups are clearly banned from doing this, yet it is not listed as one of the thinigs they can be denied funding for. Check out Title II of the By-Laws. Technically, the finance committee could determine that the group is not eligible for funding, but good luck getting them to do that for a group they're afraid of.
I think it would be ridiculous to deny all those student groups funding. It's a disproportionate response to an honest mistake. Also, as mentioned earlier, groups have done this in the past and not been denied funding for it.
It makes more sense for the ASUC Senate to discuss and establish clear, transparent, equitable, proportionate rules about this going forward.
For instance, a new rule could be that for every time this happens, a student group could face a penalty of $50 or something that needs to be returned to the ASUC, something like that.
Also, I don't think it's even clear that all those groups did in fact give "group endorsements" ... Nadir Shams could have just made another honest mistake in listing them as such.
That would itself be a violation on Shams's point. In any case, the ASUC needs to investigate.
Groups have done this in the past and HAVE been denied funding for it, too. That's the problem. It's an arbitrary process, and some groups have immunity because ASUC officials are afraid to take them on.
A fine is probably appropriate, but it needs to be far more brutal than a mere $50 if it's going to have any effect. Probation is also probably appropriate.
I don't buy "honest mistake," by the way. Any idiot could tell you that if you are funded by the ASUC, and your credibility comes from ASUC funds, then it's totally inappropriate to take sides in an ASUC election.
The Senate will not write rules to deal with it, because they like having that arbitrary power.
Another group guilty: Material Science and Engineering Association. They actually use an ASUC resource, an OCF website, to advertise their endorsement of Student Action.
