I’d like to take a second to set a record straight with the people who wrote, or plan to write, to or about me, and let them know that if, like Phillip Wismar, you want to write in (‘Union has wasted enouugh time, Armor should get over it,’ Nov. 5, pg. 6) and tell me to ‘get of my high horse,’ you need to go ahead and stop crawling on your moral low-ground.

First and foremost, Monday’s trial wasn’t the model review of leadership. The Senate chairman informed me last minute that my time to argue for Carl Woog’s impeachment was cut to five minutes. I certainly wasn’t able to articulate the volumes of problems that I and many other people have with Carl. However, the meeting is over (and the Senate still has the option to call that impeachment back to question at any time, and I am very pleased that they have this option), and I recognize that I was unsuccessful in getting the Senate to impeach Carl.

However, I will remind you all that more than a third of the Senate said, on Monday, that they have absolutely no faith in Carl as a leader and would rather see the presidency vacant than have him there. Do people fail to see what that means? If two-thirds of the Senate didn’t see the light on Monday, they aren’t choosing to serve their constituents instead of ‘being a slave to my impeachment stick,’ as I have had it phrased to me they are failing to represent the will of their constituents. I haven’t had a single BU student (outside of the Union, where attachments and loyalties develop) tell me I was doing something inappropriate by going ahead with this impeachment. In fact, I felt strange when people would pick me out off the street as the guy impeaching Woog and either congratulate, praise or support the idea, and encourage me by saying, ‘Go get him.’

Carl spent a lot of money that he shouldn’t have. And I’ll tell you, and it’s no secret, and we all have seen it this goes on at BU all too often. Student leaders use money in unacceptable ways all the time. But there are two things that make this different. First, the scale: Woog spent a lot of money. And I assure you, even though I can’t enumerate all the examples here, the wound goes much, much deeper than a $333.06 parking pass. Second he’s the Union president. I expected more from him. I would have expected as much from myself if I were president of the Union. It’s a big job, but no, you shouldn’t get special ‘perks’ for being the Union leader (beyond the free housing you were given in the Student Residences at 10 Buick St. over the summer, which apparently wasn’t enough). When you put that mantle on, you’re a servant. Thinking about the abuse of power, the lies, the cheating, the theft it inspires me to do something about it.

If we’re unwilling to take a stand on this issue with our top student officials, it becomes okay for everyone to do this more okay than it already is. You can bet 1,000 students will sign a petition to remove Carl from office. It’s not the most graceful way to do it, but at least the student voice thestudent body, which you represent, Senate will have a chance to speak.

Rowan Armor UNI ’06

The writer is the former Senate vice chairman of the Student Union. He resigned from the seat on Monday, Nov. 3.