There was a distinct lack of leadership in the Student Government Senate meeting Wednesday night. The Senate spent the majority of its meeting conducting an impeachment trial for Sen. Ricardo Malbrew. After hearing the evidence from both sides, a vote was called. Malbrew did not receive the necessary two-thirds majority required for impeachment and therefore removing him from the Senate. What is a concern for the student body is how the vote totals came out. Sixteen senators voted to impeach Malbrew. Seventeen voted no. Five senators wrote that they were abstaining on their ballot. And 14 elected either not to show up for the proceedings or simply not to vote at all. This vote is unacceptable. Leadership requires tough decisions. When that decision is as serious as whether to remove a fellow senator for possible ethics violations, each and every student senator is bound by the duties of their office to listen to the evidence and make a choice. Abstaining from the vote, or worse not bothering to show up, is a direct snub to every student who cast a ballot to elect them. Student senators were elected to make decisions, not dodge them because they feel uncomfortable or have better things to do. We also feel concerned with how the vote was conducted. Originally, the senators intended the vote to be a secret ballot, in violation of the public meeting law. If they had gone through with this, there would be no record of how each person voted. After The Daily Reveille objected to the voting procedure, the Senate consented to vote by secret ballot but wrote their names on the slip so a record could be provided. Those names showed that more than one-third of the Senate felt the alleged ethics violations of a fellow senator weren’t worthy of casting a “yes” or “no” vote. The results are very troubling with the campus less than a week away from the fall SG elections. If more than a third of the Senate cannot make the tough decisions, why are they bothering to ask for students’ votes at all?
The SG Senate voted as follows on the impeachment of Malbrew: 16 Affirmative17 Exhonorate5 Absenstions
Christopher Aleman NOQuin Allain YESCassie Alsfeld YESFord Athmann YESConnie Boudreaux ABSENTWhitney Breaux YESAshley Busada ABSENTHayes Barber NOLacy Boyer ABSENTJoe Buttross YESAbby Cantrell YESJessica Chatelain ABSTAINEDNicholas Clayton ABSENTLogan Cooper ABSTAINEDTanesha Craig NOJacqueline Delery NOGeoff Donaldson NOCandisse Doyle ABSENTCynthia Dubois YESPatrick Esfeller YESRyan Gay ABSENTSkylar Gremillion NORichard Guidry NOCourtney Harper YESHeath Hattaway YESNeal Hebert ABSTAINEDDonald Hodge NOStephanie Howell ABSENTChris Kannady ABSENTBen Kearney ABSENTAndrew Lafont YESCalder Lynch NORicardo Malbrew NOAshley Martin ABSTAINEDJennifer McDonald ABSENTKarli Mizell NOChinyere Nwabugwu NOWarren Quirett YESChelsea Porter ABSENTDrew Prestridge YESChristopher Prosser YESAndrew Remson NOColorado Robertson NOLauren Rodriguez ABSENTMelinda Rome NOHeidi Schaff NOJessica Sita ABSENTKim Storm ABSTAINEDCaitrin Thomas ABSENTPreston Walhood YESAngelique Watson NOSara Weyer YES
The roster of Senate members was obtained from the SG Web site.
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