Clarification appended: ASUO President Jared Axelrod’s memory of speaking with Constitution Court Chief Justice Matt Greene regarding a grievance was misrepresented. Although the article said Axelrod could not recall whether the conversation took place before or after the Court ruled on the grievance, Axelrod said there was no point at which he knew whether a ruling had already been made.
Over the course of the last week, grievances and resignations have caused confusion within the Student Senate. The number of vacant seats stands at three; however, an additional resignation and a motion filed with the ASUO Constitution Court may change that.
Although there is still a vacancy created by the court’s decision to remove then-Senate President Sara Hamilton from the body for failing to send out Senate agendas 48 hours prior to each meeting, Hamilton filed a motion asking the court to reconsider that decision.
Hamilton co-wrote the motion with Sens. Athan Papailiou and Jacqueline Justice and former senator Dallas Brown. It asks the court, which is in recess right now, to hold an emergency meeting to rule on the motion. The motion states several procedural errors on the part of the court denied Hamilton her right to due process.
One complaint is that Hamilton never received a hard copy of the grievance against her required by court rules, but instead was sent only an abbreviated version via e-mail.
The motion also says the court overstepped its bounds by looking for additional violations not outlined in the grievance and says court members spoke with ASUO President Jared Axelrod and with Hamilton about the grievance.
Axelrod said Chief Justice Matt Greene did speak with him about the grievance, but he did not know at the time whether the court had made the decision.
According to court bylaws, “ex parte” contact between court members and “any party in interest” of a matter before the court is forbidden.
Greene was unavailable for comment, but court members are rarely able to comment on on-going matters.
The motion also cites several inconsistencies in ASUO laws over whether Hamilton could be punished so severely for submitting the agendas late.
Hamilton told the Emerald the case against her was “ambiguous” and “hastily prepared.” She said because her term would have been over May 24, her motivation in appealing the ruling is simply to prevent future “injustices” by the court.
In other Senate news, Sen. Karl Mourfy, who resigned following the contentious April 18 meeting, reconsidered his decision and came back to Senate this week.
In an e-mail to the Senate, Mourfy wrote “a lot of damage” was done during the elections, but senators should reach out to one another to reconcile their differences.
“I know this may be difficult for a lot of people, as the wounds are still fresh, but I plead that we put our personal feelings aside and think of the collective interests of the students,” he wrote. “It will be so easy for some of us to walk away by resigning but nothing has ever been achieved by walking away from a problem.”
Sen. Jacob Daniels, who also resigned following the April 18 meeting, made his decision official in a letter that says he will resign as of 11:59 p.m. on April 29.
“I resign out of frustration,” the letter begins.
Daniels goes on to say he supported the 2.5 percent benchmark for the Programs Finance Committee from its inception, but ultimately “wavered” in his support for the benchmark and voted to pass the PFC budget even though it came in over that limit.
“Ten senators, including myself, would later be publicly referred to as racists by a fellow Senator because of our fiscally sound approach to the PFC benchmark,” he wrote.
The letter says Daniels is aware “institutionalized racism” exists and he would welcome the opportunity to attend “cultural competency” workshops, but calling senators racist because of their fiscal policy is “out of line.”
“I feel that any further time I spend on the Senate will be wasted time, since any discussion will likely pertain to internal political skirmishes,” the letter reads.
At the end of this week’s meeting, Sen. Ashley Sherrick said she would also be resigning at 11:59 p.m. on April 29.
Sherrick told the Emerald she had been thinking of resigning for a while because she felt the senators “haven’t really accomplished anything this year.”
“We were in a position to make some really important changes on campus this year and we didn’t do it,” she said. “There are deep rooted structural inefficiencies within Senate and a large amount of disrespect. I don’t really want to continue my efforts on a Senate that is that inefficient and disrespectful.”
Daniels’ seat, along with the slot created by Hamilton’s removal from the Senate last week, were both up for grabs in the ASUO elections, meaning the seats will only be vacant until May 25.
Several Senate seats will be vacant after the beginning of the new Senate because senators who are going to be graduating did not inform the Elections Board early enough to get their seats on the ballot.
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