Impeachment brought on SA rep, charges dropped

For the first time in fifteen years, a member of the Student Association (SA) was brought up on impeachment charges. SA junior class representative Tyler Williams initiated the impeachment process on SA representative and junior class president Laura Imm after a Rules Committee meeting on September 27.

The reasons behind Williams' call to initiate the process regarded Imm's behavior during the aforementioned meeting. In his letter to SA vice president Jordan Nicholson, Williams described the situation in which a student representative from the Geology Club was speaking in front of the committee in order to have the group re-acknowledged. The student speaking had a very apparent speech impediment, and while he described his group's position in front of the committee, Imm was audibly "laughing at his speech impediment." Williams included that her "behavior during General Assembly meetings is also classifiable as misconduct, displaying actions completely incongruous with the decorum necessary for the assembly."

Upon receiving Williams' letter, the Student Association held an emergency session of the Rules Committee last week. The committee went on to lay out the circumstances, describe the process of impeachment in detail, and proceeded to call the situation to a vote. Upon conclusion of this meeting, Imm was voted to remain a representative of the Rules Committee in a unanimous decision. But she was still slated to stand trial to determine whether or not she was to be impeached as a member of SA. Then the executives received another letter from Williams.

According to vice president Nicholson, "The letter rescinding charges was received after business hours [on Monday night]." Nicholson explained that Williams repealed his charges, claiming that he (Williams) would do so once Imm apologized for her actions. She went on to do so, issuing an apology to the Geology Club for her misfeasance.

Imm explained her situation and the context behind her actions in an interview earlier on Monday afternoon. "It was an awkward situation," Imm said. "We didn't expect it to happen, it was nothing against the gentleman from Geology Club what-so-ever... I did apologize to the whole entire committee, it was very inappropriate behavior on my part, as well as the rest of the committee."

She went on to describe that she did not agree with the impeachment charges, stating that the SA statute constitutes grounds for impeachment based on an act of malfeasance. Imm said that "malfeasance is legally defined as breaking the law while you're in a public office." She continued by enforcing the fact that she instead was guilty of simple misfeasance, which is acting inappropriately in public office. "And that's even stretching it... because technically the person who is the victim is supposed to be the accuser."

Laura Imm is currently a junior, and is the fifth longest tenured member of the student association. She has spent five semesters taking an active role in SA, and plans to continue now that the air has been cleared.