(Mitchell Richtmyre / Fourth Estate)
Election and Disputes Commission moves to indict Grays on 4 of 5 charges
BY EMMA G. SCHAIBLE, NEWS EDITOR
The Election and Disputes Commission has removed Isaiah Grays from his position as Student Body President after the Undergraduate Representative Body brought forth and approved charges of impeachment.
The charges were introduced as a resolution at the URB meeting on Oct. 30.
Commissioner Colton Sefeldt wrote for the Disputes Board, unanimously finding Grays violated four out of five counts, including corruption, unprofessional and unethical conduct, misconduct or severe violation of governing documents and neglect of duties. The rest of the decision recounted the details brought to the Board’s attention throughout the hearing.
Title II Chapter 10 of the Code of Student Governance states that if there is no President, the Executive Vice President, Jonathan Dubois, will inherit and execute the powers of the President.
The hearing occurred on Nov. 10, and was structured with ten minute opening statements from both sides, followed by a questioning period and a two-minute closing period.
The proceeding was heard by four of the nine members of the EDC: Ivy Anyango, Sruthi Akkineni, Colton Seefeldt and Chair Tyronne Mitchell Jr.
The petitioners were made up of two juniors who are members of the URB, Christian Collins and Griffin Crouch. The respondent was Grays and a representative he selected, freshman Gavin McGregor.
Before the hearing began, McGregor tried to get a list of motions passed. Phil McDaniels, the Election and Disputes Commission Advisor, explained the process and repeatedly emphasized the hearing as “not a legal proceeding.”
Crouch delivered the opening statement for the petitioners. He started by explaining the proceedings, breaking down the charges and finally stating that the URB “lost trust in President Grays.”
McGregor, who identified himself as legal counsel to Grays, began his opening statement with the argument that the petitioner “cannot factually support” the five charges brought against Grays.
McGregor also stated that he and Grays “have ample evidence against” the charges.
After opening statements, the questioning period began, which allowed for each party to ask five questions to the other. The questions were written on slips of paper, then approved by the EDC and read aloud.
In addition to the five questions, the EDC was able to ask follow-ups and call witnesses to testify for either side as they saw fit.
The questions ranged from Grays’ attempted cancellation of the student government leadership council meeting on Oct. 21 to his alleged bribing of Clerk Andrew Boese.
Boese was called by the EDC to testify about his experience with Grays.
“The fact that I was asked to kill the bill … that’s unacceptable in my opinion,” Boese said, referring to B. #12, A Bill to Amend the Code of Student Governance, which would have stripped Former President Grays of his voting powers.
McGregor argued that the charges of impeachment were not introduced and discussed in the correct procedural way, which sparked a response from Crouch recounting earlier pieces of URB legislation that did not follow procedure.
“If you’re picking and choosing when standards are set, that is not really setting standards,” Crouch said.
Summer Dooley, chair of Student Engagement and Support, was also called to recount her experience with Grays surrounding her role as event lead for the Gold Rush event.
Dooley explained that everything she learned about Gold Rush, she learned through members of the Patriots Activity Council rather than Grays himself, furthering her argument that “he [Grays] went behind my back.”
Grays countered that his involvement in Gold Rush was only that he “wanted to see what more we could do” with the event.
Each side had their own opportunity to close with a two-minute long closing statement.
Crouch began with his closing, emphasizing once again that the hearing was not a legal proceeding, and closing that Grays has “not create[d] a collaborative atmosphere.”
McGregor concluded that the burden of proof was on the petitioners, suggesting that they failed to meet it and that too much of their case laid in “opinionated statements.”
Title III Section 4 of the Code of Student Governance states that Grays has seven days to appeal, first to the entire nine-person EDC.
If new evidence is discovered, or irregularity or bias found in the EDC’s ruling on the first appeal, the decision can be appealed further to a Faculty Review Board consisting of the URB advisor, the Director of the Office of Student Involvement and another member of the Office of Student Involvement.
