Student Body President, or SBP, Hudson Kraus will face an impeachment trial in the Student Senate due to alleged instances of misconduct.
At the last senate meeting on Aug. 30, Hudson admitted to altering the job description for the vice president of campus improvement position to fit his brother Hunter Kraus’ lack of SGA experience.
At the same meeting, the senate denied his nomination for the second time. Now, student senators and Student Government Association, or SGA, members are planning to initiate the impeachment process due to this incident, and more, an anonymous member of SGA said.
Speaker of the Senate Andrew Applewhite declined to comment.
According to the Student Senate’s agenda, the senate will call an executive session to hold Hudson’s impeachment trial at their next meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 13.
“The general thing is that a large enough group of senators have decided that the impeachment process is potentially the best way to go at the moment,” the SGA member said. “I don’t believe there’s any definitive way for how this will end so far, but the biggest thing at the moment [is] that a sizable group of senators — enough to start the process — has signed off on it, and the [senate] session will be closed.”
According to the SGA Code, any elected official impeached is barred from filing for or serving in any SGA position during the session they were removed or the following session.
“Basically, as I understand the code, you need a third of the senate to start the impeachment process, which I believe the threshold has been well past for that, at this point,” the SGA member said.
Once a motion for impeachment is made and approved, the SGA Code says the senate must then move into an executive session. In executive sessions, the only individuals allowed in the room are senators, senate officers, ex-officio, the chief justice of the judicial court, the SBP, the accused official and any students they wish to call to represent them.
“A lot of the details will not be getting out,” the SGA member said.
During the executive session, a two-thirds majority vote from attending members is required for the impeachment to succeed.
The member said the controversy has been building for a while.
“I think the relationship hasn’t been the best from the get-go, and that I think the nomination process for Hunter had a part to do with it,” the SGA member said. “The biggest thing is that this isn’t an attempt to undo the executive branch.”
The SGA member said regardless of how the process goes, all executive committee nominees who have been confirmed by the senate will stay in place.
“The biggest thing is just the senate wants to make sure that accountability is prevalent, especially amongst a person who many would consider to be the face of SGA,” the SGA member said.
