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DEAN SEARCH COMMITTEE -- DBA sends names to Provost for search committee post

PARKING SPACES -- Parking woes drive search for compromise

PRACTICAL JOKER BLOWS UP CHANCES AT ELECTION -- Dixon bans prankster from running in election

WHAT A DEAN DOES -- Dean articulates vision, set momentum for capital campaign

ELECTION RESULTS -- DBA representative and runoff election results

LLM REPRESENTATION TO STAY AT TWO -- DBA votes to maintain number of LLM representatives

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EDITORIAL -- Is it time to take the DBA more seriously?

GUEST OPINION -- Matthew Keck on the law school grading curve

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ABOUT WLSA -- WLSA sets misison to promote gender equity in law

WLSA ROUNDTABLE -- WLSA sponsors roundtable discussions on gender issues

WLSA SURVEY -- Duke Law alumnae advice awaits students in OCS

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FACULTY PROFILE -- Catherine Admay sees passion in the law

MOOT COURT -- Competitors inspired by speaker

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ASK MR. BRAD -- Mr. Brad answers the mysteries of flickering monitors

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GROUP SCOOP -- Student Organization news

CALENDAR -- What's Happening March 8 - 28

PAGE LAST UPDATED Monday, March 8, 1999 pbs

By Barbara Goffman

The gag was on a practical joker last week, who was barred from running in the DBA election because of a prank he pulled.

DBA Vice President Dave Dixon blocked 1L Tucker Max from running in Thursday's election after Max impersonated four 1Ls. Max had entered the election himself, seeking to be a representative to the Graduate and Professional Student Council (GPSC). Max also had submitted fake statements of intent to run in the election, as well as facetious platforms, under the names of four friends.

"I thought it was funny," Max said Tuesday night of the stunt. "This process begs for this sort of thing."

But Dixon, who organized the election, was not amused.

"I agree at some level that they were funny," Dixon said. "People have submitted flippant statements before. But submitting statements in someone else's name is what I have a problem with."

DBA President Andrew Flake agreed, saying that Max's action "mocks the whole electoral process."

Dixon discovered the prank accidentally. He sent out emails to all the students who had entered the election, reminding them of the deadline for submitting their platforms. Two people wrote back, saying they had never thrown their names in the ring. About the same time, other students told Dixon about the stunt and Max's role in it.

Dixon confronted Max, who admitted his actions. Dixon then disqualified Max from running in the election and reported the incident to Susan Sockwell, associate dean for student affairs.

"I felt I was required to report it because it was close enough to an honor code violation," Dixon said.

Other DBA board members agreed. During a discussion of the incident at Tuesday's weekly DBA meeting, 3L Representative Kim Lerman remarked that Max's actions have "got to be an honor code violation."

Yet they aren't, Sockwell said. The code only covers specific listed offenses, such as plagiarism or use of unauthorized materials on an exam.

"I do not see that his submissions of fake, practical-joke election statements is a violation of one of the listed offenses in our honor code," Sockwell said Wednesday. "I told Tucker that I think it is misconduct but not an honor code violation, and he will not be prosecuted under the honor code."

Max is not necessarily off the hook, however. The preamble to the honor code allows the administration or faculty to separately address all other types of student misconduct, Sockwell said.

"There are other avenues to deal with misconduct. I'm still considering that. I don't know what I'm going to do," she said.

Max, meanwhile, had challenged his election disqualification. "My Statement of Intent was submitted in accordance with every rule that I could find," Max wrote in an email to Dixon on Feb. 24. "I submitted it with the full intention of running, and … I expect to be given the same considerations as every other person who ran."

Dixon maintained his action was permissible. The DBA Constitution says that the vice president may promulgate reasonable election rules and regulations, Dixon pointed out. The DBA board backed Dixon unanimously in a vote of confidence Tuesday.

After learning that his bid was rejected, Max said this whole incident had become "comical."

"I wouldn't have done this to someone I thought would have a remote chance of being offended," Max said. "I honestly figured someone would read these [platforms] and recognize immediately that they were fake. The whole thing should have taken five minutes at the most."

But Dixon ended up spending far more time on this issue. Between investigating the fake nominations, rewriting the ballots, and discussing the problem with Sockwell and the DBA board, Dixon said he wasted about 10 hours.

"I thought it was possibly defamatory to have these statements attributed to these people," Dixon said. "At the beginning, I had no idea if these were people [whom Max] hated."