Plagiarism Or Content Overlap? What's Your Damage, UA?

Penn, meet Jake Shuster, current Undergraduate Assembly Treasurer and presidential candidate in the upcoming UA elections. As a freshman Money Booster, Shuster caused some StudGov drama after sending out a mass email encouraging his classmates to vote for him instead of reelecting Jon Youshaei, the freshman class prez. Whew.

Now a junior, Shuster is in the news again, this time over allegations of campaign platform plagiarism. Ruh-roh. That Ivy League internet trash compactor IvyGate has undertaken an investigation into the similarities between the campaign platforms of current UA Prez and VP Tyler Ernst and Faye Cheng (respectively) from last year and that of would-be president Shuster. Though smug and sensational, IvyGate's post does raise some serious concerns about the campaign that shouldn't be ignored. Naturally, Shuster didn't take these jabs lying down. 

In a response, Shuster wrote the following:

I've been on UA leadership for several years and, it is important to me that our best initiatives are continued and executed under my tenure. Very simply, I was alongside Exec for many brainstorming sessions, both with Tyler and Faye during their campaign, and also throughout this past year. Is there an appreciable amount of overlap? Yes. Is that natural, and do I have plenty of newly-created ideas? Absolutely. These ideas come as I have conversations with you.  I take the best ideas and update my platform in real-time. This will continue to happen throughout the campaign.