View the full text of the Oct 15 Motion.

In the coming weeks, President Ben Olson (AS4) will refer Vice President of Student Life Ben Cooper (AS3) to the Senate Judicial Com¬mittee through a written statement to the com¬mittee for his failure to submit a report required by the by-laws.

At 5 a.m. on Oct. 15, Olson sent the pro¬posed agenda for that day’s Senate meeting to the roster of senators. The agenda included pre¬vious notice of Motion [091022], “Removal of Vice President of Student Life.” When a mo¬tion is filed as previous notice, it is placed on the agenda to notify senators that it will be debated and voted on at a future meeting.

The motion was removed before the official agenda was printed for the meeting. The agenda is flexible and susceptible to changes until the meeting begins at 9 p.m. on Thursday.

The Times-Delphic has obtained a copy of the motion. It outlines four major unconfirmed allegations against the vice president of student life.

Cooper allegedly failed to file a report on Senate’s status at the beginning of October, vio¬lating Senate By-law II.01.3. According to the bylaw, “The Vice President shall make a report to the Student Senate at the first meeting in Oc¬tober certifying the status of the standing com¬mittees and shall furnish each Student Senator a list of meeting times and locations of each com¬mittee and subcommittee.”

According to the motion, this information was not included in the Student Body Presi¬dent’s report to the Board of Trustees because Cooper had not filed the report.

The motion also alleged that Cooper used his influence as the vice president of student life to convince a Student Life Center worker to give him “lost and found” Drake ID cards. Cooper then allegedly used the cards to access Cline Hall after the building was closed.

These actions violate three sections of the Drake University Student Handbook, including misuse of student identification card, theft and trespass, according to the motion.

The motion also states that, “interviewed applicants for Student Senate committees were severely mishandled,” and criticizes Cooper’s organization of standing committees, a duty outlined in By-law II.01.3.1. It was also alleged that Cooper violated By-law II.01.3.3, which assigns the Vice President of Student Life the duty of assisting the Stu¬dent Body President.

It’s moved “that the current vice president of student life be removed from office for con¬duct not becoming of an executive officer and failure to complete his duties as outlined in the Student Senate by-laws.”

According to the motion, when approached about the student handbook violations, “the al¬leged misconduct was confessed directly to the Student Body President.” Cooper said that the motion was “document full of lies” and only half-true.

Cooper said that he is innocent of the al¬leged charges against him.

“I maintain my innocence, and I don’t want to make any hasty decisions,” Cooper said.

Cooper was able to access the motion prior to it being sent to the senators on Oct. 15.

“I thought it was appropriate that he saw what was coming,” Olson said.

Cooper said he was not comfortable ad¬dressing any specific allegations before the ju¬dicial hearing.

“I want a fair trial or I want a fair judicial hearing, and I don’t want the judicial commit¬tee influenced by my statement or anyone’s statement on this issue,” Cooper said.

Four hours before the Oct. 8 Senate meet¬ing, Olson showed Cooper a print copy of the motion that he intended to bring forward that night. Olson said he asked Cooper to step down at that time. Cooper verbally agreed to start writing a letter of resignation and did not attend the Senate meeting that night, as Olson made is clear that the motion would not be brought up if Cooper did not attend the meet¬ing. Cooper said that he had been asked to step down prior to that date on Sept. 17.

After talking to Drake administrators and close friends, Cooper decided three days later not to step down from his position.

“I just couldn’t write it,” Cooper said. “When I thought about it, I had to defend my character. I knew I was doing my job for the student body.”

Olson said that all past senators who have been asked to step down have done so.

“We are the highest representation of the student body, and we should act accordingly,” Olson said.

After Cooper refused to resign, Olson ex¬plored other means of addressing the alleged misconduct.

Olson said that “a significant number of senators” had approached him, taking is¬sue with Cooper’s leadership. Olson also ap-proached some senators to gather opinions and feedback on Cooper’s performance.

After consulting with Judicial Committee chairwoman Samantha Haas (AS3), Olson de¬termined that drafting a motion would be the best means of moving forward.

According to the motion, Olson “believed it was the best and only remaining option for the good of Drake students.”

However, after the motion was made avail¬able to the governing body on Oct. 15, several senators were surprised and confused by the development.

These sentiments resulted in several meet¬ings of various factions of senators between the motion being sent and the meeting the fol-lowing night.

During the Speakers and Issues portion of the meeting, Olson initiated a discussion of the miscommunications surrounding the motion and the actions of executives and other sena¬tors involved in the matter.

“Was it a complete representation of what’s going on?” Olson said. “Probably not. But, it seemed to be the best option.”

The following week, Olson announced that he would refer Cooper to the Judicial Commit¬tee rather than pursue the motion.

“Too many senators had already formed opinions,” Olson said. “It seemed to be the best course of action.”

The motion did not cover the full scope of the violations, Olson said. However, his refer¬ral will only include Cooper’s alleged failure to file the status report in October.

Olson said he understands that other sena¬tors plan to ask him to submit referrals against Cooper on their behalf for other alleged vio¬lations. Only the three executive members of Senate – Tisleen Singh (J4), Cooper and Olson – may refer a senator or fellow executive to the Judicial Committee.

“Before students make their final call, I would wait until the final motion comes out from judicial because that will cover the full scope and include Ben Cooper’s opinion,” Ol¬son said.

Olson said he would accept the verdict of the Judicial Committee., whatever it may be His main concern is that the issues are ad-dressed in the appropriate way.

“Whatever the decision of the Judicial Committee is, I will fully support it,” Olson said.

Olson said that Senate has continued to proceed with other motions and issues, allocat¬ing funds and making other improvements.

“Senate is still performing strong,” Olson said. “This is an important issue to be ad¬dressed, but not the only one.”

Olson said that he and Cooper still have a good working relationship.

“He’s handled it very professionally,” Olson said of Cooper’s reaction to the allegations.

Cooper said that he plans to continue serv¬ing students and fulfilling the duties of his posi¬tion.

“Ben and I are still working together and I remain serving the student body with the best interests,” Cooper said.

Many students have questioned if the chal¬lenges to Cooper’s leadership ability are re¬lated to this being his first year as a senator. Cooper was a senate committee member for the last two years.

Olson said that not sitting around the table can pose challenges to senators coming in, but said that the questioning of Cooper’s leader¬ship was not solely related to this matter.

Cooper said that he was not given appro¬priate guidance when he began his term as vice president of student life.

“Yes, I was transitioned, but I wasn’t transi¬tioned as well as I’d hoped,” Cooper said.

According to By-law II.01.4.2, “In the event of the resignation or removal from office of the vice president of student life, the student body president shall appoint, with approval of the Senate, a member of the Senate to complete the unexpired term.”

Olson said he did not think it was appro¬priate to discuss any potential replacement of Cooper at this time.

“The student body has elected us to be here, and they should know that we are han¬dling this and will convey to them the decision we reach,” Olson said.