Boston University Student Government voted against impeaching a senator, who was accused of lobbying fellow senators in a past impeachment vote and violating Senate duties by spreading misinformation, at a meeting Monday night.
The unnamed senator reportedly attempted to persuade fellow senators to vote against a measure to impeach a different senator two weeks ago. SG’s Judicial Commission received the initial complaint and voted 4-1 in favor of presenting the impeachment vote to the full Senate, according to Head Judicial Commissioner Andrea Gomez.
Senate followed the vote with a debate on a number of constitutional amendments. Issues brought up included concerns about limiting those who can serve in SG and limiting how many roles and branches a person could serve in.
Some senators argued that time and logistics should limit a person’s role, as well as potential biases that come with serving in multiple roles. Others said limiting someone’s passion and capabilities to serve in SG was counterproductive.
Others argued serving in multiple roles limits the number of new students who can get involved and creates an issue with a lack of separation of powers. The amendment that would limit SG members and their ability to hold multiple roles was not passed.
Shaina Evans, a freshman senator from CAS, and Aditya Jain, a sophomore senator from the College of Engineering, proposed creating an ad hoc committee to discuss new constitutional amendments outside of general Senate meetings.
Evans and Jain said their proposal would allow members of the committee to focus on potential new amendments and generate a more fleshed-out discussion. They also argued it would take less time to discuss the proposals in a committee, which would allow the process to move along more smoothly.
Once the committee came to a consensus, the senators said, they could present proposals before the full Senate.
Some senators argued the committee would not be effective, claiming it would take the debate away from the main Senators.
Senate Chair Andrew Chiao said he didn’t want to comment on the state of the new constitution because of the current proposals still being discussed.
“I don’t want to put my opinion out there because of the possibility of swaying people,” Chiao said.
Sofia Saric contributed reporting.
Correction: A previous version of this article misquoted a statement from Marielis Perez. The comment has been removed.
Correction: A previous version of this article misquoted a statement from Andrea Gomez. The comment has been removed.
