Sitting patiently in the Student Government Association conference room eating his lunch, Maurice Scott, Senator for District one-College of Arts and Sciences, waited on his fellow senators to come sign a petition that will force the senate to hold a special session on Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. The petition requires fifteen members of the senate to take affect. Upon receipt of the petition, the Speaker of the senate must notify the senate in person, by mail or messenger service, such as oral or written notice (facebook, twitter, e-mail, etc.) and be delivered at least 24 hours before the special session is to commence. “What we want to do is make sure that we get all of our facts straight before we make any decisions on further action,” Scott said. “We want to make sure we are fully informed before a more harsh decision is made.” “Depending on what information we get from this session, we will go from there to see what other things need to be done. We will get the senate together and get everyone on one accord. When it comes to make a decision on behalf of the senate and on behalf of the student body, we need to make sure that we take the responsibility to ensure that what we do doesn’t negatively affect the university. Constitutionally, the senate does not have materials or grounds to formally impeach SGA President Syene Jasmin. The purpose of the special meeting is to further investigate what truly happened in regards to the statements Jasmin made on TV. “The senators who made mention of impeachment, we made out of frustration because we basically had to find out about this incident on the news,” Scott said. “Syene didn’t even mention the newscast when he came before the senate he was aware of his actions, and made no mention of them. He also did not mention  the fact that Gary Brown was a part of that telecast. Gary spoke as the Chief of Staff, and on behalf of the university when the senate had not even confirmed him yet. You can’t just make appoints, they all have to go through the senate.” “According to the constitution it is the responsibility of the senate to confirm the presidents’ appointments. To go out on the students behalf was unconstitutional, as he had not been confirmed.” While the senate may not have confirmed, Brown until recently, Jasmin appointed him chief of staff almost immediately after the controversial elections that took place in April. After Jasmin won the initial vote of the students, his appoint Julian Love filed a complaint with the Elections Committee to investigate whether or not Jasmin had cheated during the process. Jasmin used the email listserv to send an email message to all students on election day to encourage them to come out and vote. While he did not specify one candidate or another, Love’s complaint stated that Jasmin had violated the elections procedure and protocol in regards to not using any electronic methods of campaigning. Scott, who was Chair of the Elections Committee at the time, and the committee, made a rare decision to put both candidates back on the ballot. Jasmin won again, and appointed Brown his Chief of Staff. There was also a great deal of discussion and debate over whether or not the presidents’ appointment for parliamentarian (Octavia Ocean) was qualified. Many senators questioned whether or not Ocean knows parliamentary procedure well enough to be the executive board parliamentarian. Scott said that Ocean made a statement that while she may not be familiar with all the details of Robert’s Rules of Order, she knows enough to properly apply it to meetings. Despite all the discussion, Ocean was confirmed. Scott said that he would wait in the conference room until 5 p.m. to get the total signatures he needed. As of 12:30 p.m., he had 9, which means he would only need six more to call a special session.

• Dexter R. Mullins