In wake of the controversy surrounding Tuscaloosa’s municipal, Paul Horwitz, a professor at The University of Alabama and husband of Board of Education candidate Kelly Horwitz, wrote an email to the UA Faculty Senate calling for action and reform on the University level.

Tuscaloosa community members and students flocked to the polls Tuesday in support for school board candidates. As election results were counted, incumbent Kelly Horwitz fell to her challenger and previous UA SGA president Cason Kirby by 72 points, and the chair of the Board of Education position went to Lee Garrison over Denise Hills by a margin of 203 votes.

District 4, an area largely comprised of UA students, became the center of focus, as reports emerged of potential voter fraud. Allegations from Tuesday’s elections include WVUA’s reports of 10 UA students registered to vote at the address of a single family home and reports from Al.com alleging sorority and fraternity members were incentivized with free alcohol at two local bars to vote for UA alumni Lee Garrison and previous SGA president Kirby, and with receiving UA Panhellenic Association and in-house points for voting.

Cathy Andreen, director of Media Relations at the University, said in an emailed statement that, “The Alabama Panhellenic Association did not offer Panhellenic Points to their members to vote in the city election.”

Leela Foley, director of media relations for the SGA, said the SGA would support the University in taking action to ensure the law and student code of conduct are followed.

“The SGA encourages informed participation in all elections,” Foley said. “And if we see a need for students to be better informed on fair voting practices, the SGA will work to provide programs that satisfy that need.”

In his email to the faculty senate, Paul Horwitz asks whether the University will be a “modern institution that honors fairness and the rule of law, or whether it will, in important respects, retain remnants of the kinds of views and behavior that this university has been burdened with and failed to definitely address for the last fifty years.”

In an interview with The Crimson White, Horwitz said he wants to emphasize the need for conversation on a long-standing issue.

“I just wanted to make clear that the important thing is to have the conversation,” Horwitz said. ”The important thing is to have a solution, and the administration certainly needs to be a part of that, and I’m happy, eager to work with them.  Everyone of good faith and with any experience here understands that this is a long-standing problem that has come up before and will come up again, and the other day’s events were just a particularly striking example of that.”

Horwitz said though he was frequently critical and assertive in his email, he wants to work with faculty, administration and students to re-assert the direction the University is headed.

“I certainly think that that is just a piece of a larger conversation that the University — and that means all of us who form the University community — need to have about our relationships on campus, certainly including with these organizations, and about how we’re going to present ourselves moving forward,” he said. “We’re not the only university that has ever faced these questions, and I believe that there are models out there for a respectful cooperative reform, or to the extent that it’s necessary, tougher reform, that we can and should look to.”

Hills, who ran for the chair position of the Board of Education against Garrison, said she is waiting for the official election results, which will be announced Sept. 3, before deciding whether to challenge the results. She said she is “weighing her options, but it is not off the table.”

Hills said she has yet to see any of the incriminating emails in person and is proceeding with caution with all the information that has arisen since election day.

“I don’t know if they did [manipulate votes],” Hill said. “If they did not, I will gladly shake Mr. Garrisons hand, congratulate him and offer my knowledge to help him.”

Hills said regardless of outcomes, “there are still five other people with a great deal of passion, experience and knowledge about the school board” who will be serving.