For the first time in Student Government history, senators drafted a resolution of impeachment of the student body president.

“This is unprecedented,” Tracy Hutcherson, chairman of the Government Operations Committee, which holds the first hearings in impeachment proceedings, said.

The process is establishing precedent as it ventures into uncharted territory. Although unusual, the governing documents of Student Government provide both substantive and procedural outlines.

“This is the first time we’ve ever done this, so I don’t know what ‘typical’ is,” Bo Heath, vice chairman of government operations committee, said.

Student bylaws require a resolution of impeachment be referred to the government operations committee after a first reading of the bill in the Senate.

The bylaws state a resolution of impeachment may be based on grounds of neglect of duty, breach of ethical duty, abuse of power, fraudulent misrepresentation on official documents or improper qualifications to hold office.

Specific allegations of misconduct are referred to as specifications.

The resolution of impeachment of Student Body President Whil Piavis cites neglect of duty, breach of ethical duty and abuse of power and includes 22 specifications. When the resolution of impeachment was referred to the committee on March 1, there were six members on the committee, five of whom were also sponsors of the impeachment resolution. “I did see how that could be viewed as unfair,” Student Senate President Forrest Hinton, a junior in mathematics education, said.

Hinton used his powers of appointment, with consultation and a vote of the Senate, to appoint two additional members to the committee, neither of who are sponsors of the impeachment resolution. “Additional safeguards were added so people would realize that the Senate as a whole views this as a very important part of their job,” said

“This is not something we take lightly,” Hutcherson, who is a primary sponsor of the resolution of impeachment, said “Sponsors are kind of like prosecutors. They wrote the bill. They know what they had in mind,” Hinton said.

The bylaws require the committee, which has power to stake specifications in the resolution, to schedule a preliminary hearing on the resolution within two weeks of referral.

The committee met last night, 15 days after the Senate referred the resolution to committee. “The Government Operations Committee can reduce the charges, but we cannot add to them,” Heath said. Hutcherson explained the committee has several options upon referral of the resolution.

By a majority vote, with the requirement of a quorum, individual specifications can be stricken.

“Once a specification is stricken, it may not be reintroduced,” Hutcherson said. The committee may also change the resolution from impeachment to censure, an admonition without formal consequences, or table the resolution, effectively killing the resolution in committee.

In conjunction with censure, the committee may also suspend the stipend of the accused.

“Impeachment is a legislative punishment, not a judicial hearing,” Hinton said.

The committee’s preliminary hearing allows evidence of the allegations to be presented by sponsors of the resolution as well as an opportunity for the accused to respond.

If the resolution remains in committee for five weeks or more, the Senate may vote to discharge the resolution by a two-thirds majority vote and send it directly to the Senate for consideration. The committee does not impeach or indict the accused. “By reviewing evidence presented by both sides, it determines whether there is a basis for the Senate to consider the allegations,” Heath said. If the resolution is reported out of committee, the Senate takes responsibility for the resolution, whether it includes all or one of the original specifications.

The Senate then debates the resolution of impeachment.

Sponsors of the resolution present their case as to why there appears to be grounds under the constitution and bylaws to impeach the accused. Impeachment is the equivalent of indictment, a formal accusation of wrongdoing. It requires a vote of two-thirds of all senators present and voting, subject to the rules of a quorum. If the Senate votes to impeach the student body president by the required majority, then a trial would begin in the Senate. Student bylaws allow senators unlimited debate during this phase of the proceeding. Both sides present evidence and senators individually weigh the persuasiveness of the evidence presented. The only outcomes of an impeachment trial are that the official is removed from office or remains in office. This is similar to U.S. government impeachments.

Two United States presidents were impeached in the past: Bill Clinton in 1999 and Andrew Johnson in 1868.

In both cases, after trial in the U.S. Senate, the presidents were acquitted and remained in office. The Student Body Constitution requires a three-fourths majority vote of members present and voting, subject to the rules of a quorum, to remove an elected or appointed official from office.

Censure, on the other hand, requires a two-thirds majority. The impeachment process at the point a resolution leaves the committee is not an indictment, or an impeachment, it is merely an assertion that there appears to be grounds for consideration of the resolution by the Senate.