Now that the ASUO Constitution Court has dismissed the grievance by which former presidential candidate Michelle Haley sought to remove President Emma Kallaway from office, maybe we can move on to more important matters and start behaving as adults.
In a unanimous and unsigned opinion, the court found that Haley provided insufficient evidence for her allegation that Kallaway failed to publish a political document outlining her goals for the year by the date specified in the Green Tape Notebook, which contains all of the ASUO’s rules.
Because of the potential merit of the charge, the court has given Haley two weeks to produce unaltered evidence. The words “Original date” and “Modified” on the tardy document and a boldface type added for emphasis made clear that Haley altered evidence the first time, according to the court’s opinion.
Really? Not only did Haley, in a transcribed tantrum against the candidate who beat her last spring, waste all of our time by feigning concern for affirmative action and indignation about early morning conversation, she also forged the evidence?
The court cited a lack of evidence in dismissing Haley’s other four charges as well. Haley did not offer any evidence that Kallaway neglected to answer e-mails related to the ASUO’s contract with Lane Transit District; Haley did not cite the section of Senate rules violated when then-Sen. Kallaway met with former ASUO officials, allegedly to plan her presidential campaign while on a student fee-funded trip; Haley did not cite the section of the ASUO’s affirmative action plan she said was violated when Kallaway hired her campaign manager as chief-of-staff.
The court dismissed this complaint entirely, saying Haley had no standing to contest whether Kallaway should have hired applicants Haley deemed more qualified and racially suited. “Petitioner may not legitimately assume that she speaks for others who are not party to this dispute,” the opinion reads, later adding, “This ad hominen attack against another student is beneath the dignity of the ASUO.”
Beneath the dignity of even the ASUO, and that’s saying something.
Perhaps the court’s newly-appointed members are being scrupulous in their pursuit of justice. Perhaps there is convincing evidence somewhere that Kallaway intentionally neglected a contract, failed to distribute a constitutionally-mandated document on time or misled the student body about whether she had distributed it on time. But the idea of the 2009 election continuing for another month or more while each side produces more arguments is too much to bear. This silliness needs to end.
It’s hard to imagine what the evidence supporting any of these allegations could be or where Haley would find it. Even harder to imagine is that a sitting student body president, now four and a half months into her term, could be removed from office on any of the three counts where the court has allowed Haley additional time.
Kallaway is our democratically elected student body president, and it should take a lot more than what has been offered to justify her removal by the unelected branch. There is plenty of work to be done, from setting budget recommendations for more than 150 programs, contracts and departments to finding a way to plug $400,000 of debt and hiring an elections coordinator capable of impartially sorting through the messes the next election will bring.
Let’s hope we are done wasting time and newsprint on petty grievances and ready to move from a never-ending campaign to the hard work of governing.
[email protected]