A special Student Assembly committee voided many of president Nicole Artzer's '94 executive appointments last night, leaving the Assembly with a patch-work governing body for at least the next week.
A temporary committee on procedure, formed Sunday night, said yesterday that seven of Artzer's 10 executive committee appointments were unconstitutional.
The executive committee, made up of the president, the vice president, the secretary, the treasurer and the co-chairs of the Assembly's five committees, decides what issues the Assembly should discuss.
Artzer said she will not make new appointments to the executive committee. Instead she said she will wait until the people she appointed are formally confirmed as voting members of the general Assembly.
Assembly representative Grant Bosse '94 challenged Artzer's appointments at the first Assembly meeting of the term a week ago. He questioned the president's right to appoint non-elected students to the executive committee.
The new committee said executive committee duties listed in the constitution -- like approving agendas and creating special committees -- imply voting, which only official general Assembly members can do.
But the Assembly constitution lists only one executive committee action that explicitly mandates a vote -- the approval of college-recognized organizations seeking representation on the Assembly.
Under current Assembly rules, a student must file an application and attend three Assembly meetings before the president and the nominations committee can grant voting privileges.
The Assembly will hold its second general meeting of the term tonight --meaning Artzer's executive committee could be in place by Oct. 12.
"I won't abandon these executive committee members," Artzer said. "They will fill out their applications, be reinstated and reappointed. Until then we'll run with how many we have."
The students affected are Class of 1996 President Brendan Doherty; Mitch Jacobs '94, Panhellenic Council President Rachel Perri '94, Class of 1995 President Tim Rodenberger, Jesse Russell '96, Tyrone Thomas '94 and the future Class of 1997 President.
The evaluation of Artzer's appointments, which involved an examination of the Assembly constitution by the ad hoc committee, confused many committee members and top Assembly officials.
"The matter is a strict interpretation of the current SA constitution," wrote Linda Albers '95, the ad hoc committee chair, in a statement announcing the committee's decision.
But Albers struggled later to explain exactly what part of the constitution Artzer's appointments had violated.
After consultation with another committee member, Albers explained that only students who were voting members could adequately serve on the executive committee.
Dan Garodnick '94, who chaired a committee that made extensive revisions to the Assembly's constitution last year, said the constitution is not intended to hamper the president's creation of an executive committee.
"The intent of the constitution is crystal clear," he said. Garodnick called the ad hoc committee's decision "a waste" of time.
The ad hoc committee also proposed rules of order for the Assembly this term and constitutional amendments dealing with committee structure, election rules and representation qualifications.
Both proposals must be approved by the general Assembly.
