Two Student Government E-board members impeached by Senate

The Boston University Student Government Vice President of Finance and Vice President of Internal Affairs were impeached Monday at the SG Senate meeting. The SG Judicial Commission found after completing an investigation beginning Oct. 27 into complaints filed the same day that the members failed to fulfill constitutionally mandated tasks.

Approximately 90 people, including of senators, Executive Board members and other students, came to the impeachment trial. Senators voted in a closed discussion where E-board members and attendees were asked to leave the room.

Senate Chair Stephen Chang said senators were the ones who ultimately made the decision to impeach Marwa Sayed, VP of internal affairs and a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Kimberly Barzola, VP of finance and also a junior in CAS.

“There [has] been a lot of pressure and emotions coming from both ends that could be seen today,” Chang, a senior in CAS, said after the meeting. “However, the senators have voted.”

Twenty-six senators voted in support of Sayed’s impeachment while 13 voted against the claim, and 37 senators voted supporting Barzola’s impeachment while two voted against it, Chang said. Barzola and Sayed were given time to address the accusations and answer attendee questions after complainant Daniel Schwartz, a South Campus senator, presented his filed complaints.

Schwartz, a senior in the College of Engineering, said Barzola failed to submit financial reports and had multiple absences in Senate meetings. Only two financial reports were submitted throughout the past seven meetings, one of which was written by Chief of Staff Akiko Endo.

“The fact that we’ve only been given one effective budget report [by Barzola] and the fact that the budget report was very questionable in its findings [led me to file for impeachment],” Schwartz said in the meeting. “It makes no sense to me that someone can’t do their duties, yet they keep their title just to redeem the perks of having the title.”

Schwartz also said he holds concerns about the budget report such as food purchases of $100 from BonChon and $100 of purchases in other restaurants. There was also a purchase of $2,800 for paper towels for the Tailgate at the beginning of the school year, Schwartz said.

In response, Barzola apologized “for not being transparent,” she said in her address.

“As far as finance reports go, Student Government did not receive budget allocation for the 2015-2016 school year until after the first Senate meeting,” Barzola said during the meeting. “The process in which to file for an effective budget request has changed within the last month and the past few weeks, and has required me to spend much time in SAO relearning the demand from above.”

Barzola also said she believes the Facebook group Terriers Against Discrimination’s petition demanding her resignation due to her public online expression of her personal political views influenced the impeachment.

“One of the claims made referenced the same things that were made by Terriers Against Discrimination, which were grounded in silencing my personal speech,” Barzola said. “It’s my only hope that from this trial will come the culture of accountability and increase the transparency from the Executive Board and the senators.”

Chang said he wanted to be clear that the trial was based on Sayed and Barzola’s alleged insufficient attendance and inadequate job performance in Senate.

“As Senate, we decided this was a performance-based issue and that is the reason they are being removed,” Chang said. “It’s definitely not the fact that [Sayed and Barzola] held political beliefs, I think that is allowed, and that is what makes student government run.”

Andrew Cho, SG president and a senior in CAS, said he is shocked and saddened by what the senators decided Monday. He said he couldn’t deny the presence of unfair influences that steered conversations in the trial.

“This has completely undone the legitimacy of Student Government,” Cho said. “I don’t really understand why the senators chose this. Regardless of Student Government we need to come together as a community and make amends about it, regardless if we disagree.”

Justin Flynn, one of the three judicial commissioners, said the Judicial Commission had no say in what happened during the trial, and he believes impeachment was too extreme for Sayed and Barzola.

“My job is to facilitate the process that senators vote for,” Flynn, a junior in the Questrom School of Business, said. “I do feel like [senators] made the wrong vote, and my opinion is irrelevant. My only job is to facilitate, and move forward with what the senators vote on.”

No other senators were available for comment following the vote.

Several attendees said they would have appreciated a more open dialogue during the meeting that led to the impeachment vote.

Roxanne Segina, a freshman in CAS, said there would have been better ways to resolve the issue aside from impeachment.

“Impeachment is [an] extreme solution and I feel as though a lot of senators may have some kind of influence that may have led to that unanimous vote of getting an impeachment trial,” Segina said. “It’s also a bigger issue on campus involving discrimination and different political ideologies.”

Nicholas Ganey, a junior in the CAS, said the meeting should have allowed a conversation about the discrimination accusation.

“I agree with the claimant that they did not do their duties to a perfect and impeccable degree, but this is understandable and was well explained by both VP’s,” Ganey said. “[Senators] try to find little issues in [Sayed and Barzola’s] duties and claim they were not fulfilling their duties within the first few weeks of holding their positions amid structural changes and OrgSync and the function of student government.”