USG

A week after the USG Supreme Court suspended the results of the
previous week's elections, the court issued a decision on the case,
choosing to uphold the election results.

In other USG news, the senate voted to pay the Advocate General $60 per week, increased the President Pro Tempore’s pay from $60 to $85 per week and increased the Executive Vice President’s pay from $8.50 per hour to $11 per hour. Also, the Senate Clubs Rules and Funding Committee suggests against the 85-15 policy that would restrict to 85% the amount a club's budget can pay for off campus travel.

At the Oct. 4 USG senate meeting, an informal, non-binding decision was made by the senate to create a committee to address the issue of the off-campus trips policy.

The Sept. 27 senate meeting ended with chaotic open agenda complete with yelling students, a banging gavel, and a quick dismissal of the meeting by Undergraduate Student Government Executive Vice President Nathan Shapiro.

In what was a rapid push through a potentially complicated and lengthy process, the USG senate voted on and passed a proposed constitution for ratification at the Sept. 20 meeting.

Romual Jean-Baptiste, president of the Undergraduate Student Government, lost his job today after the USG Supreme Court agreed unanimously that he committed "wrongful acts of substance" as charged by the USG Senate in their impeachment proceedings. The charges were centered around an incident involving offensive campaign fliers during the USG elections.

"The past month has been a difficult period for the Undergraduate Student Government, culminating in the removal of our President. The process of impeachment and removal was emotional and painful, but we have learned one essential truth from this process: it works. The process, never put to the test before, worked."

Two years spent within the Undergraduate Student Government

USG President Romual Jean-Baptiste and Junior Representative Michael Cohan were both impeached by the senate of the Undergraduate Student Government Tuesday night. The impeachment resolutions approved by the senate accused the two of conspiring to plant offensive campaign fliers to look as if they came from another candidate, USG Sen. Joseph Antonelli.

USG President Romual Jean-Baptiste faces a possible impeachment at Tuesday's senate meeting, along with Michael Cohan, Jean-Baptiste's mid-year replacement appointee for Junior Class Representative.

The race for president of the Undergraduate Student Government is no longer uncontested in a dramatic reversal of the Elections Board's decision to disqualify two candidates by the USG supreme court.

Previously disqualified candidate Chinelo Onochie will be put back on the ballot as a result, according to Elections Board Chair Max Sequeira. The other candidate and the incumbent president, Romual Jean-Baptiste, withdrew his candidacy prior to the board's Friday decision and will not be put back on the ballot.

Two of the three candidates for president of the Undergraduate Student Government were disqualified from the ballot Friday night by the elections board, leaving Sen. Joe Antonelli to run unopposed in next week's elections, according to Elections Board Chair Max Sequeira. The decision has since been overturned by the USG's Supreme Court.

Ralph Thomas, vice president of clubs and organizations for USG, submitted a letter of resignation tonight at what was suppose to be his impeachment hearing. After submitting the letter to the supreme court justices, Sen. Nathan Shapiro on behalf of the USG withdrew all charges against Thomas. The meeting lasted all of one minute.

USG's vice president for student life, Trevor Hirst, writes us on the public controversy between the senate and executive council.

USG Sen. Nathan Shapiro writes us on the effectiveness of USG in the face of perceptions of the opposite.