Rafael Macias The Current

SGA representatives cast their votes for impeaching President Darwin Butler. The impeachment resolution failed, but the SGA did approve a new slate of Student Court justices as well as new SGA officers.

by Joe Harris
senior editor

Michael Rankins was voted in as permanent vice president for the Student Government Association at its meeting on Thursday.

Rankins, a graduate school representative and former SGA vice president, filled the seat left vacated by Carrie Mowen on Sept. 17. Steve Wolfe has been the interim since.

Rankins, though, could become SGA president depending on a ruling by the Student Court. The presidency has been vacated ever since Darwin Butler's work release was revoked last October. Butler has since been unable to attend SGA meetings since.

Rankins

The SGA constitution states that an officer can be expelled upon missing four meetings. Butler missed his fourth meeting on Thursday, and SGA officials said they would pursue having Butler officially removed through the Student Court.

"It's an automatic elimination if he's missed four meetings pending an appeal; he always has the right to appeal it," said Ben Ash, SGA parliamentarian. "However, I'm sure that after they count up four absences today, they'll send out a letter to Darwin, wherever he may be, stating the fact that he has been expelled, and he must appeal if he wishes to remain in office."

Rankins said he would welcome the challenge of the presidency if it were to happen. He said that restoring the students' faith in SGA is his top priority.

"We have Mirthday coming up, and student government can't drop the ball on that again," Rankins said. "We have to be out there. We have to be present. We have to be sure that we are present in the appropriate way and the students see that student government is back and that we are taking our jobs seriously and that we are taking them seriously."

The vote came about in an attempt to start impeachment proceedings against Butler. The lack of quorum stopped those proceedings on the first try.

After several minutes of debate on how to proceed, a motion was made and passed to close the meeting and to start a new one five minutes later.

The motion was made because the constitution says any organization that is absent from four or more SGA meetings will have their funds frozen and will be expelled from the assembly. The reasoning was that if enough groups were in violation, that would bring the number required for quorum down to the point where it might be achieved in the meeting.

However, quorum was still not met when the second meeting was called. With quorum not established, and Butler being in violation at the end of the second meeting, the assembly then moved to shore up the SGA in case the Student Court upheld the SGA constitution and expelled Butler.

A two-thirds quorum is needed to start the impeachment process; however, a simple-majority quorum is needed to vote on a vice president. With a simple-majority quorum present, the assembly had the power to vote Rankins in.

According to the SGA constitution, if the president vacates the office, the vice president would take the position. This means that if the student court expels Butler, Rankins is automatically the president.

Ash said everything the assembly did on Thursday, including calling the second meeting, was constitutional.

"The assembly can decide when they want their next meeting to be," Ash said. "In this case they wanted it to be five minutes after their last one. That's all constitutional. They can do that. Secondly, we have had two meetings and when we come down the constitution to whether or not [Butler] can be removed, Butler can be removed in a lot of ways now. He can be removed in an impeachment or it could be from just a lack of attendance."

Most of the SGA representatives in attendance agreed with the move and thought it was a step in the right direction.

Jackie Anderson, president of the University Program Board, said she hopes this will stabilize the student government.

"Hopefully it's a positive step," Anderson said. "We really need to get some leadership. We really need to get something done or at least stabilize it for the elections so that next year can be prosperous."

Wolfe, who was serving as both the interim vice president and acting president in Butler's absence, will temporarily stay on as interim vice president until the Student Court makes a ruling on presidency's status. If Butler is expelled and Rankins moves into the presidency, Wolfe will stay on as interim vice president.

Wolfe said he has mixed feelings about his current position within the SGA.

"I don't know; it's hard," Wolfe said. "I've given my life this semester; I've almost had a nervous breakdown [over this job]. I need to reevaluate my position; this is sudden."

Rich Eccher, Student Court justice, said he cannot comment until the Court reaches a verdict. He said that once the Court receives the papers from SGA, the matter will be dealt with in a prompt and timely manner.