Less than a week after surviving an impeachment attempt against her, Maya G. Prabhu '94 resigned her post as vice chair of the Undergraduate Council yesterday and assumed responsibility for the invalid results of a social committee election she conducted.
Prabhu did not admit to tampering with the ballots, but a source close to the investigation said she confessed her involvement privately to the four person committee probing the election fraud.
"Maya's resignation should be interpreted as an admission of guilt," the source said. "She admitted [to the panel] that she had tampered with the results of the social committee election."
The resignation, which is effective immediately, came in the form of a letter to council Chair Malcolm A. Heinicke '93. It followed nearly two weeks of Prabhu's repeated denials that she tampered with the results of the vote.
"Someone needs to take responsibility for the events which have occurred," Prabhu wrote. "It is clear that my remaining in this Council is an obstacle to its true objectives in guiding student policy and providing student services."
In the October 21 election she conducted for social committee co-chair, Prabhu declared Danielle D.Do '93 and Tree F. Loong '94 winners over Marc D.McKay '94 and Spyros Poulios '95 by a vote of seven to six.
Poulios contested the result and Heinicke asked Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 to conduct a re-vote. The second election favored McKay and Poulios.
In an interview with The Crimson just after the re-vote, Prabhu, a resident of Dunster House, said she did not understand what had led to the discrepancies.
"I absolutely did not tamper with the ballots," Prabhu said then. "I would never jeopardize the trust that people have in me as a [council representative] and this new mandate that I've been given as vice chair, over something as insubstantial as a social committee co-chair election."
Prabhu maintained her innocence before the full council last Sunday, vigorously defending herself against a motion for her recall brought by McKay. She would not comment on those statements last night.
The third term representative--who had "All I'm saying in that letter is that I mademistakes that night, I mismanaged the election,and I'm taking responsibility for that," Prabhusaid. "I'm not going to say anything more." But Prabhu did not deny that the results of theelection were fraudulent. "Ballot tampering didoccur," she said. "I'm not going to claim moreresponsibility than I need to." Prabhu said she resigned because she grew tiredof the pressure caused by the scandal. "It's preventing me from getting on and doinganything," Prabhu said. "It's preventing thecouncil from getting on and doing anything." The former vice chair said she regretted thatseveral of her friends felt obligated to speak outin her behalf. Read more in News