As of last night's Student Council meeting, the Council is two College representatives short of a full, proportional representative body.Council Executive Vice President Rebeen Pasha announced his unilateral decision to end the terms of College representatives Ben Hicks and Curtis Ofori last night, citing the fact that both had transferred to the Commerce School and thus no longer represented their College constituents.
"My initial reaction was that if you're full-timed enrolled in both [schools] than it would be fine," Pasha said. "But it's unconstitutional."
Ofori challenged Pasha's authority to end a representative's term prematurely without consulting Council as a whole.
"Representative Hicks and I have a strong willingness to continue the dedication that we promised those 10,000 plus voters who elected us," Ofori said. "To remove us without a thorough review of the facts would be tantamount to disenfranshising those voters."
After several debates, the majority of Council rejected Ofori's attempts to amend the bylaws.
Pasha emphasized to the representative body that this was an issue of eligibility and legality, not a matter to be taken personally.
"This is an eligibility issue and may not be decided by the representative body," Pasha said, adding that any change to the bylaws to allow for representatives to transfer schools would be unconstitutional and "out of order."
Ofori noted an exception made in the Honor Committee's constitution that allowed for an Honor Committee member, Brad Robinson, to maintain his position last year regardless of his transfer to the Commerce school after being elected from the College.
Honor Chair Carey Mignerey said although he would not comment on the specific Council situation, the Honor constitution allows for such an exception.
"According to our bylaws, Honor committee reps can effectively represent a school from which they are elected regardless of what happens afterwards," Mignerey said.
Both Hicks and Ofori said they are keeping a second major in the college but the University policy is to categorize them only as Commerce students. When making his decision, Pasha consulted with several sources, including Arts and Sciences Council President Kerry McNabb.
McNabb said she told Pasha she agreed with the decision to remove Hicks and Ofori of their responsibilities.
"I think that the schools should be represented by their own students," McNabb said. "The process should be reformed though with some sort of proviso so this doesn't happen again."However, Pasha said he did not think there needed to be any constitutional revisions."This will set the precedent so people will know you can't be in two schools at once," he said.
According to the Council constitution, the Arts and Sciences Council will choose the replacements for Hicks and Ofori via an application and interview process which will take place early next semester.
Although the Arts and Sciences Council has a vested interest in being able to replace the representatives, Pasha said that McNabb's opinion had no direct effect on his decision to remove Hicks and Ofori.
"The decision is totally mine and it's completely based on the constitution and bylaws," Pasha said. "You would have to be full-timed enrolled in the school that you are represent."Pasha added that he lamented the circumstances."I deeply regret the fact that we are losing two other reps on Council but there are many other ways for them to be involved with Council." Pasha said. "It's not fair to the students and it's not constitutional" to let them keep their offices.
At the end of the meeting, both Hicks and Ofori said they held no hard feelings for Council and were glad that their concerns at least were addressed.
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