Student Senate Appointments Contrary To Constitutional Provisions

By Jason Endres & Lauren Racine

Over the past three weeks, nearly 50% of the positions in Student Senate have been undemocratically filled by special appointments, leaving half of the student body’s representative body hand selected by a small group of members of the Student Senate Executive Board. These appointments, which violate the Senate Constitution by taking place prior to freshmen fall elections were also made without the required number of senators for quorum, further illegitimating their existence. These actions could be deemed unconstitutional by members of Senate, and charges of impeachment could potentially be brought against those Senate officers involved in the process. In addition to possible parliamentary proceedings, the legitimacy of the recent and future disbursement of club funds to various organizations, coupled with the possible initiation of a Student Activity Fee, leaves the constitutionality of Senate proceedings hazy at best.

The Gettysburg Student Senate faces a number of challenging decisions and tasks in the upcoming school year, including the impending vote on the passage of the new Honor Code and the possible implementation of a Student Activity Fee. These complex issues are further complicated by recent activities of the Senate, in particular, those of its Executive Board officers, which may be in violation of their Constitution. These actions include the unconstitutional appointment of Senators, and the holding of meetings and conducting of official business without a proper quorum, possibly nullifying any recent Senate initiatives.

From March 29 through March 31, the Student Senate held their annual elections to fill each class’s seven senatorial positions. In total, twenty-one student seats were open during these elections, and seven additional first- year students will be elected in September upon the entrance of the Class of 2009. When the votes from the election were counted on March 31, by 2004-2005 Student Senate Vice President Whittney Gallo and Associate Dean of College Life, Tom Mottola, Senate was not able to fill the total number of open positions for class representatives.

While all the seats were filled for next year’s sophomores, the class of 2008, only three positions were filled for next year’s senior class and only one spot was filled for next year’s juniors, the class of 2007. Out of over 600 students in the junior class, only one student ran for a Senate position. Furthermore, ten of the 21 open Senate positions, or 47.62%, remained vacant. Records for the past two Senate elections were not available for comparison purposes, as the Senate does not release numerically based election results.

In order to ensure a smooth transition between officers, Student Senate installs their newly elected officers at the third to last meeting of the year. The new President and other officers then conduct official business at the final two meetings of the year. This year’s installation took place on April 11, and the subsequent meetings held on the 18 th and the 25 th of April. After the April 11th installation, it became obvious that the deficiency of Student Senators was both problematic and not conducive to the mechanisms of Senate, which require a quorum for conducting official business, and various committee chairs to report to the Senate each week. A quorum is the minimal number of senators of the Student Senate who must be present at the meeting in order for the senate to conduct business.

Alex Wilkins, class of 2006, and newly elected President of the Student Senate, explained that, “due to the amount of positions still open, we had to fill the positions in order to meet quorum and be able to conduct our final two meetings of the semester.”

In total, Student Senate has appointed nine Senators (three also hold committee chairmanships), over the past three weeks. Four senators, including the three committee chairs, were appointed on April 18th. Eric Payne, Brittany Tuosto and CJay Roughgarden were appointed as committee chairs, and rising junior Mike Pattanite were appointed and approved at this meeting. An additional five Senators were appointed at the meeting on April 25th.

President Wilkins remarked that, “ after filling all the chair positions, it was then apparent that there were 6 juniors that showed interest in the position who all were both qualified and motivated about working with Senate and there was no need for a special election.  There is still an open senior position which we hold a special election for in the fall.”

There is a provision in the Student Senate Constitution, revised in January and again in March of 2005, (Article 3, Section 1-K), that states, “[t]he Board of Directors reserves the right to appoint no more than 3 (three) representatives at-large if it feels that representation for a segment is lacking.” The Board of Directors, according to Article 2, Section 2-A, consists of the Senate Executive Board as well as the chairperson of each of the standing committees. One senator confirmed to Gburgforum.com that the Board of Directors did have a meeting and that three rising seniors were approved by the Directors as both Senators and committee chairmen, and that after being approved by the directors, the three individuals stayed and participated in the rest of the meeting.

Tom Mottola, Associate Dean of College Life, confirmed that the Board of Directors did meet, prior to the second to last Senate meeting, and “ they were appointed on the 18 th… and came to the meeting as committee chairs.” Mottola expressed confusion over the chain of events leading up to the Senate confirmation of the three committee chairs, and said, “I don’t remember if they were at both meetings, but they weren’t appointed until the last meeting,” and also remarked that, “They were present at meetings before being officially appointed… I don’t remember whether they participated at the 18th and 25th.”

At the Student Senate meeting held on April 18th, President Wilkins introduced Payne, Tuosto and Roughgarden, to fill committee chairs and also be appointed as Senators. These individuals required a majority vote of Senators for confirmation in their new positions. However, due to the lack of Senators, there were only fourteen officially elected Senators and Executive Board members with voting privileges, and total membership of Senate, without the incoming representatives from the class of 2009, is 24. A quorum, commonly defined as consisting of 2/3 of the total Senate positions, did not exist at this point, effectively nullifying the appointment and confirmation of these new Senators and committee chairs.

There is no specific exposition of the term, “quorum,” within the Student Senate Constitution. Mottola explained that the Senate’s interpretation of this term may be vague since it is not explained, and that there is the “ possibility of making some changes to the constitution… to define quorums in the document for the future.”

As stated in Article 2, Section 4-11, “To appoint student representatives in the Student Senate positions in the case of a vacancy in that respective position for the time after First Year Student Class Senate election. This position is to be confirmed by a majority vote of the Student Senators.” In the Student Senate by-laws it is written that, “in the event of a vacancy after First-Year Student Senate Elections in the fall, the President of the Student Senate has the ability to appoint Senators or Officers with consent of the Executive Council,” confirmed with a vote from “the entire Student Senate,” (Article 4, Section 4).

The appointment of Senators, undertaken by President Wilkins, is prohibited by the Constitution until after First Year elections in the fall. In accordance with this provision, and the absence of an official quorum in the initial confirmation of the three appointed committee chairs, no official Senate meetings can occur until after first-year elections. If Student Senate is held to the stipulations and provisions within their Constitution, those in violation could be brought up on impeachment charges, if any member of the Senate believes they committed an impeachable offense (Article 4, Section A).

The constitutionality of the appointments in the absence of an official quorum, and in light of the clear prohibition placed on pre-fall semester senatorial appointments brings the validity of the recent Student Senate actions into question.

Tom Mottola commented that, “ The constitution states specifically that they [the appointments] were to be made after first year election. It doesn’t state specifics on quorum.” He later expressed that, “If the senators don’t feel the appointments are valid then they should have another election…If they decide it’s problematic [the appointments] then they’ll need to figure out how to get through the first couple weeks of school. Not much business is conducted then but you might have requests for money. A suggestion is that they just do business with the senators they do have in position.”

In response to the constitutionality of the appointments, Wilkins told Gburgforum.com that, “we will not be able to do much work on the issue until after finals as this is a busy time for us all.” He assured that “if any of the appointments had been made in violation of the constitution, Senate would take appropriate steps to remedy the concern.”