Student Senator Nate Gulley will face disciplinary action from the Senate for a list of offenses ranging from swearing during Senate meetings to possible defamation of Senate members, Senate Ombudswoman Natalie Kinsey announced at Wednesday’s meeting.
Kinsey said that per Senate rules, Gulley must be given 72 hours warning before any disciplinary action is taken against him.
“Nate, this is your heads up,” she said. “At the next Senate meeting on Wednesday, April 4th, I will make a motion that will include the above offenses and the punishment being sought.”
Kinsey said she thinks the best solution will be a three-week suspension without pay.
“I do not want to see you removed from your position because I do believe you add good ideas to this body,” she said. “However, for your actions you must be punished, and this seems the most reasonable way to do it.”
A two-thirds vote of the Senators present at the April 4 meeting will be required to take any action, and Gulley will be permitted to defend himself.
The ASUO Constitution Court recently dismissed a grievance filed against Gulley for voting on a request in which he had a direct personal interest on the grounds that he did not violate any Constitutional rules; however, Kinsey said Wednesday that Gulley’s behavior in that meeting and others is “unbecoming of senators.”
In addition to exhibiting a conflict of interest and “unbecoming behavior during Senate meetings,” Kinsey also charged Gulley with defaming other Senators in an e-mail statement sent to the Emerald and printed in Tuesday’s paper.
In his response to the news that the grievance against him had been dismissed, Gulley accused more than half of the Senate of making “racist attacks,” which prompted Kinsey to look into possible disciplinary action.
“I have decided that while Nate, as a citizen of the United States of America has the freedom of speech and can say what he wants, he has defamed the names of several senators in addition to exhibiting unprofessional behavior that is unbecoming of senators and breaks rules Senate established for itself as well as Robert’s Rules of Order,” Kinsey wrote in a statement she read before the Senate.
Gulley did not respond to Kinsey’s statements during Wednesday’s meeting.
Senators are required to abide by Robert’s Rules of Order during all meetings. Kinsey cited a passage that outlines disciplinary procedures.
“Although ordinary societies seldom have occasion to discipline members, an organization or assembly has the ultimate right to make and enforce its own rules and to require that its members refrain from conduct injurious to the organization or its purposes,” the section reads. “No one should be allowed to remain a member if his retention will do this kind of harm.”
” . . .Cases of conduct subject to disciplinary action divide themselves into: Offenses occurring in a meeting; and offenses by members outside a meeting.”
Senators Ashley Sherrick and Kyle McKenzie also read from a statement outlining complaints against Gulley. McKenzie outlined the rules of conduct in Senate Bill 12, which is a code of ethics for Senators. He said Gulley violated the following rules in this bill:
Senators shall act respectfully toward all speakers; Senators shall not engage in conduct unbecoming of an elected representative; Senators shall act with honesty and integrity.
Sherrick said that Gulley’s accusations of racism fall under the definition of defamation. She said defamation is “any communication that holds a person up to contempt, hatred, ridicule or scorn.”
The written statement Sherrick read from cites five elements that must be present for defamation to be “actionable.” “In looking at the minutes from every meeting this year, not one senator that Gulley has named as made ‘racist’ comments or has acted in a way to make others think h/she is a ‘racist,’” the statement reads.
“While we as politicians are open to a certain amount of criticism, Gulley has gone beyond that,” Sherrick said.
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