UPDATE as of Dec. 6, 2012: The 28 Senators on the indicated list below had office hour absences completely excused by the committee, removing them from the threat of impeachment. The grounds for excusing the senators on the list was based on two things: a different method for logging graduate student office hours and the technical malfunction of check-in systems. This provided incorrect data for senate office hour attendance, placing the senators erroneously on the list for impeachment as acknowledged by the R&A committee.
According to Erika Allen and the Rules and Administration Committee, the technical difficulty with the “swipe-in” system used to clock the senators’ office hours occurred on the third floor of the Student Union Building.
However, Allen did emphasize that all 32 of these senators would be subject to impeachment if they are counted as absent — excused or unexcused — according to Senate Rule VIII.
The Rules and Administration committee has sworn in several new senators over the past three SGA meetings to fill in gaps left by resignations and removals across all colleges. For more information on the Student Senate see the S.G.A. website.
DG ADDS:
“KTXT obtained the list (flawed as it may be) from the SGA R&A committee. The list was apparently generated from information that was faulty- the means by which office hours were determined was based on a malfunctioning card-in system, and the differences in required office hours worked by graduate and undergraduate senators was also incorrectly applied. In short, many, if not all, of the names on the list should not have been included, but this was not the fault of KTXT as we received the list as-is from the R&A committee. That the list was later tabled and the potential impeachments dropped demonstrates some of the flaws and problems the SGA faces.
The story was originally titled “Find Out Who Is and Isn’t Working in SGA’s Senate”, with the implication that many senators were not doing their jobs as stipulated in the senate rules. However, once it was learned that the list was based on flawed data, that title and its implication was no longer valid. KTXT received complaints from 2 of the senators listed, and they were in fact doing their jobs. As a result, we have re-titled the story. The intent of the original story was also to edit the dataset as the R&A committee cleared each senator from the impeachment list. Since the entire list was tabled and cleared by the committee, we’ve deleted the dataset.” -DG
UPDATE as of Nov. 19, 2012: Motions to impeach the 28 senators have been tabled in committee. The threat of impeachment has been lifted from these individuals.
UPDATE as of November 8, 2012: 28 Senators have been cleared of their impeachment motions, one Senator resigned, and three were impeached and removed.
ORIGINAL STORY:
As stated in previous posts, the Tech Student Senate is under fire — and threat of impeachment — for suspicion of neglecting their duties.
32, or 58%, of the Senate has had articles of impeachment filed against them for excessive absences under Rule VIII of the Senate Rules of Conduct. The Rules and Administration Committee is required to file articles of impeachment against those who have four or more total absences, including office hour absences, as well as against those who have two unexcused absences.
Impeached Senators:
| PHOTO | NAME | COLLEGE | ABSENCES | |
 |
Amy Akabue | University College | amy.akabue@ttu.edu | 0 Unexcused 4 Excused 2 Office Hours |
 |
Gatewood Brown | Senator-at-Large | gatewood.brown @ttu.edu |
2 Unexcused 1 Excused 2 Office Hours |
 |
Ivan Frederick | Graduate School | ivan.frederick@ttu.edu | 4 Unexcused 1 Excused 4 Office Hours |
The following data is taken from Erika Allen with the Rules and Administration Committee, with absences up to Oct. 4 and office hours up to Oct. 8. Impeachments filed against the following were tabled, and the following no longer have standing impeachments.
Senators Previously Up for Impeachment:
[The list has been cleared by the SGA R&A Committee and has been deleted. -DG]
:
:
:
Analysis as of 11/19/12
Out of these 32 Senators, four are subject to impeachment for non-office hour absences, whether it’s a total of four or two unexcused absences.
- Out of these 32 Senators:
- Both of Visual and Performing Arts’s allotted Senators are on the list.
- Both of Education’s allotted Senators are on the list.
- The University College’s single Senator has 4 total absences.
- 6 are from the 9 Senators-at-Large responsible for representing the student body as a whole.
- 5 are from the Graduate School’s 6 allotted Senators.
- 2 are from Agriculture’s 3 allotted Senators.
- 3 are from Engineering’s 7 allotted Senators.
- 3 are from Business Administration’s 6 allotted Senators.
- 4 are from Arts and Science’s 14 allotted Senators.
- 2 are from Human Science’s 6 allotted Senators.
- 0 are from the Law School.
- 0 are from Media and Communications.
This dataset will be edited as the Rules and Administration Committee clears Senators of their Office Hour absences should they present satisfactory documentation to it, as well as if R&A passes down any further impeachments in the future.
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