Senators Get to the Heart of the Organizational “Rift”

At last Thursday’s Student Senate meeting, senators addressed sentiments of disconnection and miscommunication within the organization. The issue surfaced in response to Student Body President Ben Olson’s (AS4) motion to impeach Vice President of Student Life Ben Cooper (AS3).

Each week, Olson sends senators the official agenda before the meeting so they can review motions and issues ahead of time to make more informed decisions around the table on Thursday. Last week, that agenda included notice of a motion to remove Cooper from office. The motion was not intended to be voted on, but was included to notify senators that it would be addressed in future meetings.

“We’re not required to file previous notice,” Olson said. “I did it as a courtesy to the senators.”

However, the motion was removed from the agenda before the meeting began.

“I retracted the motion to impeach VP Cooper because I want to talk about it with you first,” Olson said, addressing the senators during the “Speakers and Issues” portion of the meeting.

Olson began by explaining that he felt that Cooper’s alleged misconduct should be taken very seriously. He said that he did not take the decision lightly, but felt that he must take action.

“I believe the conduct is outside the scope of the judicial committee,” Olson said.

The organization’s bylaws provide that if an executive member – president, vice president of student life, or vice president of student activities – finds that any senator (or fellow executive) is not competently performing their duties, he or she may refer that senator to the judicial committee.

The judicial committee is composed of five senators: Tyler Boggess (J4), Jennifer Field (E2), Samantha Haas (AS3), Emily Krstulic (E3) and Carla Olszewski (J4), with Haas chairing the committee.

Prior to drafting the motion, Olson had consulted Haas, who said she did not think the judicial committee should be the one to decide whether or not Cooper should be impeached.

“As the person who would have to decide (to impeach Cooper) if the committee was to come to a tie, I didn’t want to be in that position,” Haas said.

Olson emphasized that he had met with various senators about Cooper’s leadership, including Vice President of Student Activities Tisleen Singh (J3), a group of senior senators and also Dean of Students Sentwali Bakari.

“The meetings were strictly to ensure the reasoning to ask him to step down was legitimate,” Singh said.

However, several senators said they felt left out of the discussions and that their roles as student senators were undermined by Olson’s exclusivity.

“We are supposed to be a team,” Senator Krstulic said. “To be left out of that conversation makes me feel like we’re not a team.”

Senator Ben Whitmer (B2) said he felt that there was a rift between the returning senators and first-time senators. He said that the executive senators seemed to place more trust in the senior senators.

“President Olson and VP Singh have allowed the rift and failed to guide the success of this organization,” Whitmer said. “By focusing on the seniors, you’ve insulted the intelligence of the rest of us.”

Many senators were supportive of Olson’s approach to the issue and said they felt the situation had been unnecessarily dramatized.

Senator Boggess said that the situation was unprecedented, as all senators that had been asked to step down in the past had done so, unlike Cooper. He also said that he supported Olson’s actions as the appropriate way of handling the situation.

“Whether you were included or not, President Olson is trying to include you now,” Boggess said to his fellow senators.

Several senators claimed there were unannounced meetings between specific senators that they felt violated their positions.

“Does it seem like there’s sneaking and collusion? Yes,” Siva Kasinathan (AS4) said. “But, that’s the way Senate works.”

Kasinathan served as student body treasurer last year and was sitting as a proxy at last week’s meeting.

Senator Ben Urick (P3) said that he trusted that the executive members had done their job appropriately and that he was trying to remain conscious of his role in the organization.

“It seems this was the proper route for this to be presented,” Urick said. “There’s really no path to follow on how to do this. I assume faculty and exec did their job. I’m responsible for my constituents.”

Several senators said they felt that the conversation helped them express some of their concerns, but also reminded them of the complexity of the situation.

“It helped some of us take a step back and take the rational side, especially Senator Urick’s comments,” Krstulic said after the meeting.

Senators also discussed how the rift affected the legitimacy of the organization.

“I wanted to keep the integrity of the organization intact,” Olson said about his actions.

Some senators felt the discussion and occurrences of the week were not productive for the governing body.

“We’re just undermining our own integrity by carrying this on,” Haas said.

However, by the end of the meeting, the senators seemed to agree that they must find a way to continue working as a team to be a productive governing body for the students.

“I hope we can learn from this and learn what to expect from each other for the rest of the year,” Senator Norah Carroll (J3) said.

Senators discussed their options for proceeding with Cooper’s alleged misconduct. There are essentially three: to refer the alleged misconduct to the judicial committee, to put the impeachment motion on the agenda and bring it to a standard vote, or to hold a trial by jury.

As the option of simply referring the matter the judicial committee has already been eliminated, senators discussed what would be the appropriate next step. Olson did not say how he plans to proceed, but emphasized that Cooper’s misconduct would be addressed in coming weeks.

Olson made it clear that last week’s discussion was a matter of clearing up miscommunications, not one of actually discussing Cooper’s alleged misconduct.

“My goal was to put everyone at ease,” Olson said. “And, I think we accomplished that tonight.”

Cooper omitted himself from the discussion of the rift.

“I look forward to being able to speak and defend my side of the issue as we move forward,” Cooper said at the conclusion of the discussion.

Senators Brad Dick (AS4), Eric Gudmundson (J4), Greg Larson (B,J2), Carla Olszewski, Seejo Valacheril (B2), Shaochen Yu (B3) and Bakari were absent at the meeting. All had proxies serving as their replacements.