by Kristie Cattafi
Three closed sessions, 10 Greek organizations no longer at risk and one pending trial were the results of the Student Government Association meeting last night.
At last week’s SGA meeting, President Pro Tempore Jared Shababb sent 35 to 40 student organizations up for re-charterment, 10 of which were Greek. In the past, an organization that was up for re-charterment went to the constitution review committee who voted on its approval, and then, a bill would be presented to the SGA legislature. However, Shababb skipped this step and wrote all the bills before they went through committee.
“In an effort to make constitution review run smoother, not only for the committee but for all organizations involved in the re-charter process, I submitted the bills for all the organizations that needed to be re-charter this semester,” Shababb said in an apology letter to the SGA.
Shababb explained at the meeting that he was confused by the new set of rules that was enforced halfway through the semester. The SGA recently started to enforce a rule that a re-charterment bill had to be written before an organization comes into constitutional review, which confused him.
One of the main problems with the re-charterment bills was that the Greek organizations would be considered unconstitutional. The SGA statutes explain that in order for a Greek organization to be re-charted through the SGA, the bill first has to pass through Greek Council. After it passes through Greek Council, it then can be presented to the SGA legislature. If Shababb presented the 10 Greek organizations on the list from last week, they could have lost their charterment for next year.
During the meeting, SGA Vice President Mike Morano, said that those organizations are no longer at risk of losing their charters.
However, the fraternities and sororities that almost lost their charterment didn’t even know their groups were at risk.
“I want to hear about the re-charterments from the SGA, not The Montclarion,” Laura Hess, a member of one of the sororities that was up for re-chartment said during the open forum.
The SGA agreed that there was a “breakdown in communication” throughout the proceedings last week. Shababb will also be attending the first Greek council meeting after spring break to explain the misunderstanding.
Shababb faced disciplinary charges of misfeasance, which means trying to do his duties, but in a wrongful manner, at the end of the meeting around 7 p.m. The SGA went into closed session last week to select jurors for his hearing. The SGA went into two more closed sessions last night because of the jurors.
Later Wednesday night, SGA President Jon Preciado sent Shababb a letter saying, “ … Pending that you address the Greek Council on March 23, I will officially drop the charge of misfeasance.”
Preciado continued to explain in the letter that he felt this was a better way to handle the situation through communication and to make others aware of how to handle such a mistake.
“People started to back out of being jurors,” SGA Justice Michael Melvin said. “The procedure for selecting jurors was incorrect.”
The juror selection was supposed to be done in one closed session meeting last week. Becasuse of all the changes, the SGA resorted to dissolving their disciplinary committee.
The committee will have to be reestablished in another closed session at the next SGA meeting after spring break.
“This is new territory for us,” Melvin said. “We need to start from scratch.”
