Four top officials from UF Student Government and Student Senate made plans via personal, non-SG e-mail accounts to keep Orange and Blue Party members out of Senate committees during the summer session, according to printouts of e-mails anonymously mailed to the Alligator last week.
The documents were received in an envelope Wednesday.
Enclosed were e-mails - all sent from Gmail accounts - between Student Senate President Kellie Dale, Student Senate Pro Tempore MaryGrace Bell, Student Body President Kevin Reilly and External Affairs Director Matthew Goldberger.
The e-mails, dated May 17 to May 23, discussed appointments of summer replacement and permanent senators as well as committee appointments.
The Replacement and Agenda Committee, of which Bell is chairwoman, is in charge of nominating students to fill vacant positions in Senate and committees.
Two documents were attached to the e-mails listing students who applied for vacant positions for Senate seats. One listed each applicant and included his or her organizational affiliation, such as membership in a sorority, fraternity, SG political party or club. Another document listing the applicants highlighted 12 students - eight of whom were identified with Greek organizations in the first list - in green. According to a May 19 e-mail from Reilly to Bell, "Green means go." Ten of those 12 students became senators, according to Student Senate archives.
A separate exchange of e-mails on May 23 discussed committee seat appointments and how to keep Orange and Blue's committee presence to a minimum. Dale wrote that two committee seats should be given to the minority party: one on the Rules and Ethics Committee and another on the Information and Communications Committee.
"That way they cant say they are shut out, will only be there for summer, and are on committees that arent that important," Dale wrote.
In a separate e-mail sent the same day, Dale wrote that she changed her mind, and Orange and Blue replacement Sen. Cain Norris should be considered for the Judiciary Committee because he attended every meeting and authored legislation.
"It will be virtually impossible to argue against Cain," she wrote.
Norris was not appointed to the committee.
In this e-mail, Dale also wrote the following instructions to Bell: "its your responsibility to ensure that the committee keeps o and b interviews very very short and fuck sam (Miorelli), we can throw them hardball questions since he does it to our people. you can cut the interview off whenever you want.
"also, make sure good questions are asked to our people and that if they arent doing too well that we continue asking questions."
Dale instructed Bell to forward the message to committee members through text message or in person.
In a Friday telephone interview, Goldberger said the documents were obtained and distributed illegally.
"My private e-mail account is my private e-mail account," he said.
He could not be reached for comment after Friday. Numerous phone calls and e-mails to Dale, Reilly and Bell were unreturned.
Orange and Blue Party President Sam Miorelli, who served as a summer replacement senator, said he received an envelope with the same documents at his condominium Wednesday. Miorelli said he has no idea where the documents came from and does not think that someone from his party is responsible.
Sen. Mark McShera, Orange and Blue Party member, said Goldberger approached him Friday on Turlington Plaza while campaigning. McShera said the conversation consisted mostly of Goldberger saying what the legal consequences would be for the person who obtained the e-mails and for the person that disseminated them.
"He didn't deny them, he did say there was no way to verify that they were real," he said.
Alligator editors Jessica DaSilva, Hilary Lehman and Ken Schwencke contributed to this report.
