News

UA Council votes for election to recall David Spicer

Spicer will surrender his office until the election has concluded

The Undergraduate Association (UA) Council distributed a message via the UA’s Instagram story announcing that they have voted to censure UA President David Spicer ’23 Apr. 25.

The council voted in favor of a recall election, “in which all undergraduates will have to opportunity to vote to recall him.” As per the UA constitution, Spicer will “surrender his office of the UA President effectively immediately, until the recall election has concluded.”

In the interim, current UA Vice President Shruti Ravikumar ’23 will be the acting President. The council has also stated that details regarding the upcoming recall election “will be forthcoming.”

The message and decision follow dormspam that forwarded an internal East Campus email thread on ec-discuss@mit.edu Apr. 17; the thread named UA President David Spicer ’23 as one of the members of the group responsible for the postering incidents from late February and CPW weekend

The UA first released a statement regarding the incidents Apr. 19, and confirmed in the statement that “one of the accused undergraduates” is a “member of UA senior leadership.” The UA expressed that it was “incredibly upsetting,” especially given that “one of the perpetrators may have been a student leader.” EC, EC hall 1E, and the MIT Pre Law Society have also condemned the use of hate speech.

In their email, the UA went on to say that the posters and their content “do not align with UA values,” as their key values include “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” 

In an op-ed published in The Tech, Spicer also confirmed that he was part of the postering group.

The UA has stated that students interested in submitting feedback can contact them through ua-response@mit.edu or by filling out this form. Feedback with an email address will be addressed within 24 hours.