An LSU student body president candidate’s eligibility is up in the air after the LSU Student Senate voted Wednesday to bring his impeachment to trial.
During its weekly meeting, the Student Senate voted 41-12-6 to bring articles of impeachment to the Judicial Branch regarding the LSU Student Senate Director of Public Policy and Governmental Relations Jack Miller.
There will be a date for trial announced following spring break from the judicial branch.
If impeached, since it is not an election code violation the MillerHebert ticket will still be able to run. However, a new head will have to be appointed as Miller would no longer be allowed to run. He would be removed and disqualified from running for office.
Sen. Konnor Crowder presented SGB 6, which listed different articles in ways Crowder and the other 15 co-authors felt Miller failed to uphold the promises he made when accepting his position.
“The assumption was that the person that is accused … knew what he signed up for,” Crowder said. “He was selected among the hundreds of candidates that would have also wanted his position … and his position was outlined in the code that he could always reference back to.”
According to Crowder, the main issue regarding this case was Miller’s failure to establish a civics commission. The Director of Public Policy legislation states that he should have a civics commission 45 days after the academic year began. That time period has now passed, which goes against the policy.
Miller spent three semesters as a senator, representing University College, prior to his appointment of this position.
Miller said in his speech that the claims of him neglecting to restart this commission, which had not been active for over a year, “has no basis or foundation.” He said he has been working on this commission for months with his assistant director, Alli Chaumont.
“What makes this bill more disarming is the fact that the push towards restarting the commission was largely a result of my department,” Miller said.
Miller noted how restarting the commission, which had been inactive, was not necessarily a priority of the current executive administration. However, they still assembled it and have been passionate about getting it up and running.
Miller also claimed that the application for the civics commission was posted prior to the impeachment articles. He said the resignation of the Department of Marketing director has caused a pushback on applications, adding to the delay.
However, this claim was countered by multiple senators and Crowder stated how he has worked with the marketing department multiple times and had no issues.
Miller went on to list things the department has accomplished such as, creating dialog between members of the organization and members of the state legislature, including the president of the senate and Speaker of the House. Which he stated will allow for civic engagement and dialog between SG and the state.
“Frankly, I have done my job, and to my knowledge, I’ve known no one who’s been in my position that has done more than I have done or accomplished more than I have accomplished,” Miller said.
Following his statement, Miller declined to take any questions during the debate process which led to only Crowder answering questions. Sen. Calvin Feldt voiced his opinions on Miller denying questions.
“If you can’t answer questions to this body, we have no choice but to send this to [the] judicial [branch] where he will hopefully answer for what he’s done,” Feldt said.
While there were several senators urging the body to pass this vote, there were others who were opposed. Sen. Izzy Tran is one of them, who is also on the student body president ticket for MillerHebert.
“I’d like to say that eight out of the fifteen co-authors of this bill are somehow all connected under the same campaign. And I’d like to personally believe that, hope that there’s no political motivation,” Tran said.
Alongside this, eight members were appointed to the Black Caucus by unanimous consent, and five members were appointed to senate seat vacancies by unanimous consent. The members will be sworn in following the break, pending Student Body President Lavar Henderson’s signature.
