As far as SA elections go, it was the equivalent of a celebrity sighting: Student Association President Dela Yador was out on the floor Wednesday campaigning for the UB Advocates.
Yador's presence generated heavy buzz not only because it is rare for current e-board members to openly support candidates, but the move also came after a physical fight outside the Union between students associated with Yador and Greg Stern, the Progress candidate for president.
There is no rule that says current e-board members cannot support a party in SA elections.
"You're kind of using your powers as an official to get votes," said SA Vice President Sonia Kang, who was asked to campaign for Progress. "I think you should leave it up to the candidates to make it happen. They asked me to come down and I said I didn't want to do that because it shows favoritism."
After spending about an hour talking to students and handing out flyers in the Student Union, Yador faced sharp criticism from Progress for his decision.
"I was down there as a UB student," Yador said, "and I felt that based on what I had done this year, (UB Advocates) had the most realistic plan to make that happen."
According to Yador, he had told some members of Progress beforehand he would be campaigning.
"At the end of day," Yador said he told them, "whomever wins I'm going to give them the resources they need to succeed."
"It was a spur of the moment thing," he added.
A few Progress campaigners were angry with Yador, accusing that he was supporting UB Advocates because he had something to gain from their victory. Yador runs a company called Class Entertainment Promotions that one Progress member said would profit from SA fest after-parties if Viqar Hussain were president.
In a rare show of anger, Yador denied such allegations and pointed out his company has never conflicted interests by running events for SA programs.
Yador, though, isn't the only student with a promotions company: Progress's Greg Stern is a silent partner in an entertainment business called Real Talk. According to Stern, there was already bad blood between the two companies when that animosity came to a head on Tuesday. With both parties campaigning in the Student Union, four people from Real Talk attacked a student involved with Yador's Class Entertainment.
Stern, who said he has no money invested in Real Talk, said the altercation had nothing to do with his party.
Yador was low-key about the brief fight.
"I have nothing to lose no matter who is in office," he said.
Yador did not campaign again on Thursday, partly because he was at Buffalo State promotion SA's DJ Series. Pressure from Progress, he said, did not affect the decision, although he was disgusted with the behavior from some Progress supporters.
"For anyone to question my intentions is a total slap in face," Yador said.
Greg Rhoads, a manager for Progress, said it didn't matter to him whether Yador campaigned for UB Advocates.
"It doesn't really matter that much," Rhoads said. "I don't think it would've affected the outcome of the election."
At one point, UB Advocates supporters were saying Kang was campaigning too, for Progress, but there was no truth to that. Why the rumors then? According to Kang, her mistake that day was simply wearing a green shirt, the color Progress had adopted for their campaign.
"It's (Dela's) own decision and he's letting his vote be known," Kang said. "But I personally don't want to stick my head into somewhere it doesn't belong."
