<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Dear Undergrads,</span><br><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">My sincerest apologies for yet another UA elections-related email.</span><br>
<font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Earlier this morning, not long after voting opened, most if not all of you received an email encouraging you to vote for Jeffrey Sperling and Nathan Varady, candidates for UA President/Vice President. The email was addressed to you individually and the opening named you personally.</span><br>
<font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">A number of you have written in to complain about this campaign, indicating that you felt the email was invasive and unnecessarily spammy. I agree. I want to assure you that neither the UA Election Commission nor any other part of the UA was involved in this campaign and did not provide the candidates with the list of undergraduate emails or names. The candidates generated their own list by means of scripting access to MIT's people directory in violation of the </span><a href="https://ist.mit.edu/network/rules" target="_blank" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">MITNet Rules of Use</a><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">. Additionally, the broad campaign itself </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:rgb(38,38,38);line-height:16px">was in violation of the UA Election Code's prohibition against excessive emailing. </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">The candidates have been notified that they may no longer use electronic communication with voters as part of their campaign for the duration of the voting period.</span><br>
<font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">The UA takes privacy and spam very seriously. We try to send out emails to the entire undergraduate body as infrequently as possible and always include an opt-out link at the bottom. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to email the UA Election Commission at </span><a href="mailto:ua-elect@mit.edu" target="_blank" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">ua-elect@mit.edu</a><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">.</span><br>
<font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Apologies once again, and have a good day.</span><br><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Regards,</span><br>
<font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Leonid Grinberg</span><br><div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Chair, UA Election Commission</div></div></div></div></div>