In a vote that almost did not take place last night, Student Council introduced and passed a resolution to support the reinstatement of recently dismissed English Department teaching assistant Justin Gifford.
Gifford was relieved from his teaching position Monday in response to an incident in which he and 23 University students in his detective fiction class were arrested for trespassing at a former tuberculosis hospital owned by the University Foundation.
Under standard Council procedure, resolutions are introduced, tabled automatically for one week and then voted upon by the representative body at the next Council meeting.
Last night, Council initially voted down a motion to suspend its rules, which would have allowed Council to take an immediate vote.
"I think it is important for Council to have the opportunity to express our view on this matter in a timely manner," said Executive Vice President Whitney Garrison, who sponsored the resolution.
A subsequent motion to suspend the tabling rule passed, which opened debate on the resolution.
Garrison and Council President Noah Sullivan were among the most vocal proponents of the resolution.
"This is a complicated issue," Sullivan said. "The question is whether or not the University did the right thing. We have the proper mechanisms, laws and the University Judiciary Committee, to deal with this type of situation."
College Rep. Josh Eubank was also a proponent of the resolution.
"We recognize that trespassing is wrong, but we are condemning the way this was addressed," he said. "There has been no formal recognition of what Mr. Gifford has been dismissed for."
The interruption of Gifford's ENLT 214 class was an issue of concern for several Council members.
"This is disrupting the class's syllabus," Eubank said. "The class was designed uniquely by Gifford. The University is really punishing students by doing this."
A number of Council members, however, upheld the prerogative of the University officials to dismiss teaching assistants.
Gifford "took a group of students where they could have been in danger, and they knew they were trespassing," Council Vice President for Organizations Rebecca Keyworth said. "It is the University's decision to do what it will with its employees. This is not our place."
College Rep. Dan Hartzman agreed.
"We don't know enough about the University's rationale to ask them to reconsider it," he said. "It is not Student Council's position to tell the administration how to deal with its personnel."
After additional debate and some confusion about voting procedure, the resolution narrowly won a majority with 14 out of a possible 26 voting members in support.
"This is one more brilliant and amazing show of support," Gifford said after the meeting. "To know that these people are supportive of me increases the chance of me getting a fair trial, and that's what I want"
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