Four Student Government Association (SGA) members tried to impeach another member for making typos and formatting errors.
SGA members Joseph Giannini, Chelsea Schmidt, Elizabeth Daake and Kerrick Gerst filed charges against Housing Member-at-Large Travis Dickison Nov. 14 for making “formatting errors, typos and additions and omissions” in the SGA bylaws. Since then, the hearing was held and Dickison was found not guilty Nov. 28.
“(The charges) are ridiculous,” Dickison said. “They’re just using any excuse they can find to try and get rid of me. All of the errors they cited (in the charges), I didn’t do. They were there already, probably because of a previous attorney general. They’re not impeachable offenses, anyway.”
In the charges filed in SGA’s court, complaints include “a formatting error that created extra bullet points” and a change in the definition of “meetings” regarding the executive branch.
Dickison said he believes the four SGA members tried to get him impeached because they have personal issues with him, even though the charges state, “This is not a personal attack in any way and should not be treated as such.”
“I think if it wasn’t a personal attack, they wouldn’t need to say that it wasn’t,” Dickison said. “They wouldn’t need to rant on about how it couldn’t be.”
He said he believes charges could have spurred from arguments he had with the four members over the course of the past few months.
He said Schmidt is upset with him because he criticizes SGA’s external relations committee, which she runs.
“It doesn’t take 12 people to run it and I dislike how much they pull from the reserves,” he said.
He said his issues with Daake are because they have political differences, and he said his issue with Gerst in a private matter that he doesn’t want to go on record with.
Schmidt, the head of the external relations committee, released the following statement to The Shield: “On behalf of myself, Joseph and Elizabeth, we always look out for the best interests of the Student Government Association and our fellow student body. Our actions are not personal, but merely a necessity to uphold the integrity of the Student Government Association.”
When contacted for further comment, Daake said, “The collective statement Joe, Chelsea and I made holds true. I have no further comment.”
