Prior to the meeting where the charges levied against her were declared unfounded, Student Government Senate President April Parsons resigned from the government.
“For the past four years this organization has been my passion, my life,” she wrote in an email to government members, advisers and The Crow’s Nest. “It gave me purpose in my college career and was the biggest attributor to my personal growth. The past eight months have been terrible for me. I have tried, with all of my heart, to better the organization, and better the relationships with the Executive Branch. It has become overwhelmingly clear that I am not the right person for this job.”
The impeachment committee created following the reading of a “memo of impeachment” on March 7 by Sen. William Nicks found specific complaints to lack specificity, proof or to be legitimate grounds for impeachment. Other members of the government, including SG President Courtney Parish and Attorney General Walter “Charlie” Shelmet, had signed the memo authored by Nicks.
Committee members Sens. Jordan Iuliucci, Michael Jernigan and Christa Hegedus were selected to the committee by popular vote in the Senate. Jernigan reiterated that no impeachment had taken place, only an investigation into the complaints. Charlie Justice, assistant director of leadership, acted as the committee’s adviser.
After the committee’s findings were released, Sen. James Scott, Parsons’ former running mate in the SG presidential election, said the government had a “lost year” due to infighting.
Scott said that impeachment was not the correct tool if members of the government were unhappy with Parsons’ performance. Instead, the “vote of confidence,” which would remove a leader from the seat without removing them from the government entirely, would have been the correct action, Scott said.
Purging people because of a conflict of ideas is “polluting the blood that flows through this organization,” Scott said.
There are other tools, as well, Jernigan said, including censure. He added that members of the government need to be less concerned with their “legacy” and more concerned with serving the student body.
He also proposed a non-voting member of the government whose task would be to enforce parliamentary procedure.
