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Former presidential candidate and Sen. Mike Apt was impeached at Tuesday’s Student Government Association meeting on charges including being out of dress code, eating in the chamber and dereliction of duty. Other charges were multiple unexcused absences, failure to attend a mandatory new senator workshop and failure to complete office hours.
“I don’t know if people are mad at me for running [for president] or if people are mad at me for whatever else,” Apt said in his defense. “I think it’s kind of ridiculous because all of a sudden the same people are trying to kick me out of every single thing I’m trying to do in this organization.”
Last week, Apt was disqualified from the 2013 SGA elections for breaking election code rules. Sen. Cristan Shamburger (CHSS), vice president Kolby Flowers and sophomore English major Stori Ellis collectively submitted four protests to the SGA Election Commission.
However, Sen. Robert Ferguson (CS), who called for Apt’s senate impeachment on March 19, explicitly said that the election had nothing to do with his call for impeachment.
Apt’s impeachment was concluded by secret ballot in compliance with Rule 6 Section F of the SGA Rules and Procedures. Apt’s impeachment received 13 ayes, five nays and two abstentions, which provided the 2/3-majority vote necessary for approval.
GUNS BILL UPDATE
Flowers and President Shane Rankin will present SGA’s S13-02 to the Board of Regents Student Advisory Board during its next meeting in late May. The bill hopes to change the way guns-on-campus laws are created and enforced.
Treasurer Jimmy Williams said that the bill states that the students of Sam Houston State University want schools in Texas to have the power to choose for themselves on whether or not to allow guns on campus rather than leaving that decision to lawmakers in Austin.
“The biggest thing about it is that it’s not saying [if] you’re for guns or against guns,” Williams said. “It’s [asking] ‘are you forà big government or small government’ basically.”
According to Williams, External Affairs Chief Ramiro Jaime Jr. is in charge of presenting the bill to President Dana Gibson. He said that it’s her job as the administration to present the bill before the Board of Regents.
The next Board of Regents meeting will take place on May 22-24.