Tempers flared last night as councilmembers, with only two meetings left in term, discussed impeachments and student-org funding — again.
The meeting began with a presentation by Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Penny Rue, who stressed that one role of the council is to improve campus climate, and announced that the 2010 graduation speaker will be Laren Poole, a Marshall College alumnus. Poole is a co-founder of Invisible Children, a group dedicated to protecting children in Africa.
Triton Television Station Manager Thomas Dadourian announced that the station was planning to pair up with individual college stations to share knowledge and ensure that the smaller stations didn’t “die out every four years.”
Advocate General Parminder Sandhu presented awards to councilmembers who had good attendance records or had improved over the past quarter. Recipients included Transfer Senator Adam Powers, President Utsav Gupta and Campuswide Senator Tobias Haglund. Haglund was not present to receive his award.
Vice President of Student Life Ricsie Hernandez announced that the Sun God Festival store is now open on the second floor of Price Center, near the old post office.
A.S. President-elect Wafa Ben Hassine announced that she was working with the Housing, Dining and Hospitality committee on a project that would allow students to exchange dining dollars with other students.
“Mark Cunningham supports it full on, even though they don’t make a profit,” Ben Hassine said. “I almost feel like there’s something shady going on.”
During campus affair committee presentations, the council passed an amendment that requires the outgoing VP of Student Life to appoint members to the next year’s campuswide committees by Week Eight, instead of only “when requested to do so.”
The council then turned to the question of whether to impeach oft-absent voting members. Campuswide Senator Bryant Pena argued that very few people eligible for impeachment during Winter Quarter had been impeached.
“We impeached two people though there were 11 eligible,” he said. “One had like 13 absences and the other, well, I don’t even remember what they look like.”
All impeachments were failed.
Afterward, councilmembers debated whether they should fully fund an event put on by Students for Justice for Palestine on April 20. A.S. Council policy determines that it funds only half of all contracts, but, due to a misunderstanding, SJP put on the event expecting to be fully reimbursed.
The council was concerned about being inconsistent, but Campuswide Senator Adam Kenworthy disregarded these claims.
“This council has never been consistent,” Kenworthy said. “If consistency was a batting average, we would be traded.” The council reimbursed SJP.
The meeting ended with Sandhu again bringing up impeachments.
“I’m like the guy in Green Eggs and Ham,” he said. “I will talk about impeachments with you on a boat, on a house, outside a house, on the sea.”
