Student Trustee candidate Spencer Haydary dropped his controversial contest against Collin Schumock, the student trustee-elect.AG

Haydary and Schumock, both juniors in LAS, were the two main candidates for student trustee. AGSchumock won the student trustee election by less than 130 votes,AG according to the unofficial election results released March 11. The official results are not yet available.

Haydary later filed a contest against Schumock because of a written endorsement for Schumock by Student Senate President Mitch Dickey.AG

Dickey’s endorsement was published by “The Daily Illini” as a Letter to the Editor March 8.AG

Haydary said the endorsement violated campaign bylaws and the constitution of the Illinois Student Senate.AG

“Since Mr. Dickey inexplicably stated in his Daily Illini endorsement of Mr. Schumock that he served as the student body president for the past two years, he invoked his title of student body president,” Haydary said at the hearing held by the Campus Student Election Commission, CSEC, last Tuesday.AG

At the hearing, Schumock said Haydary submitted his complaint too late after the election results and that Dickey’s endorsement did not violate the student senate constitution.

“Even if Mr. Dickey did break the rules, is this grounds to take action against me?” Schumock said.

However, since the CSEC hearing, Haydary has dropped his contest against Schumock.

“I think it was a very respectable decision by Spencer Haydary, and I look forward to seeing him do amazing things for students this year,” Dickey said.

Shawn Gordon, chair of the CSEC, AGfacilitated the hearing in which Haydary presented his case and Schumock responded.

“I am glad Mr. Haydary and Mr. Schumock were able to settle the matter. Both gentlemen were extremely professional through the entire process,” Gordon said.

However, Gordon said he was disappointed to see some students take the contest to the court of public opinion rather than allow the contest to resolve itself through the due process mechanisms available on campus.

Haydary said he and Schumock have plans to issue a joint statement of solidarity and Schumock said he will comment further on the situation as well.

Stay with The Daily Illini for updates to this story.

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A previous version of this story contained an error that read “I think it was a very respectable decision by Spencer Haydary, and I look forward to seeing Colin Schmock do amazing things for students this year,” Dickey said. 

The quote is now corrected. The Daily Illini regrets this error.