Former-Student Body President Hudson Kraus was impeached and removed by the Student Senate on Sept. 27 by a 35-15 vote following weeks of public controversy.
After Kraus changed the qualifications of the vice president of campus improvement cabinet position to match his brother’s lack of Student Government Association, or SGA, experience at the Aug. 30 senate meeting, senators motioned to impeach him, resulting in the Sept. 27 trial.
After his brother was denied by the senate, Kraus altered the position’s qualifications to be entirely entry-level rather than the initial paragraph recommending SGA experience. The altered version states an individual’s resume does not matter as much as their “attitude toward service and their personality.”
At the Aug. 30 meeting, Constituency Affairs Chair Marcus Glass said he discovered the changes just hours before.
“In fact, it turns out there was an edit made to the actual descriptions at 11:30 a.m. today,” Glass said. “So, what does that mean for us? Do we disenfranchise the student body by changing what the qualifications were originally for this position?”
The senate then denied the nomination in a 23-27 vote. Following the meeting, senators demanded a public apology from Kraus, but he never gave one, according to an official within SGA choosing to stay anonymous.
“There [were] a variety of meetings where an apology was demanded,” the official said. “And finally, people started saying, ‘Enough is enough. We value integrity. We want to preserve that.’”
The SGA Code requires one-third of its members to sign a petition to initiate impeachment proceedings, but in just days, the motion accumulated 43 signatures, according to the official.
At an Internal Affairs meeting with the top student senators, Kraus privately apologized to the group and distributed a written statement, where he said impeachment was not the proper route to take.
“Furthermore, my feeling is that impeachment is a tool to be utilized when all other options have been exhausted,” the letter reads. “In this case, I made a mistake and I take ownership of the error. However, my actions have not been indicative of a negative pattern of behavior that would warrant such an impeachment action occurring.”
The trial was initially scheduled for Sept. 13, but Kraus submitted an appeal to A&M’s Judicial Court alleging misconduct in the impeachment proceedings. The court then issued a Writ of Injunction, stopping the proceedings and issuing a gag order, preventing senators and those involved from speaking about the impeachment.
The court simultaneously issued a Writ of Certiorari, instructing the Student Senate and Kraus to submit evidence to the court in preparation for a trial to review the alleged misconduct.
However, he withdrew the appeal days later, according to a Sept. 19 statement.
“We are at a crossroads, and it is not about being right anymore, but about preserving unity among the Aggie family,” the statement reads. “I wish to restore the bonds of peace that would lead [SGA] back to selflessly serving Aggies, and I trust that others are interested in doing the same.”
Following the withdrawal, the judicial trial was canceled and the senate trial was scheduled for Sept. 27, the next general senate meeting. The SGA Code mandates impeachment trials occur during an executive session, so no individuals besides senators, the chief justice, the student body president and SGA’s faculty advisor were allowed in the room during the deliberation.
After hours of deliberation, the Student Senate voted 35-15 to impeach Kraus, passing the two-thirds requirement for removal of office.
The trial was conducted by Chief Justice of the Judicial Court Sawyer Bagely.
“After multiple rounds of counting and ensuring that everything was followed according to the ruleset … the final vote was 35 to 15,” Bagley said during the meeting. “The impeachment removal of Student Body President Kraus has passed.”
Kraus declined to comment. Multiple senators declined to comment or answer questions, citing a gag order placed on them until the senate’s Internal Affairs group makes an official statement.
According to the SGA Code, Speaker of the Senate Andrew Applewhite is next in the line of succession for student body president, if he accepts the position.
