Jose Gonzalez-Campelo/The Cougar
Last Wednesday, the Student Government Association called a special session to discuss applications for the Student Fees Advisory Committee.
However, the meeting took a turn when SFAC chair Yusuf Kadi alleged President Diego Arriaga of violating Title VIII, Article 3, Section 1, Clause 2 of the SGA bylaws that state the president and Senate will duly consider the recommendation and opinions of the SFAC chair when appointing members to the committee.
“Several weeks ago, Diego started conducting interviews for SFAC committee members,” Kadi said while addressing the Senate. “Candidates started going up with me never having been contacted about this.”
Kadi accused Arriaga of not conferring with him about SFAC appointments. Kadi also told the Senate how he had heard of interviews happening without him.
Kadi alleges he was not told about the candidates for SFAC and the first candidate was removed from selection without conferring or considering his recommendations.
Diego only reached out after the aforementioned meeting where the candidates were struck, Kadi said.
“Either he just learned of the bylaw clause or was realizing that it would be enforced,” Kadi said. “We had a conversation about it, and I implored him to take a step back, go through the process properly.”
Arriaga responded to these allegations by giving Kadi 40 hours to review SFAC appointments, including overnight hours.
Kadi alleged he could have been given weeks to consider the appointments.
Additionally, Kadi claimed that after considering that he needed to be conferred with before nominations went up for a meeting, Kadi only had 19 hours to review potential SFAC candidates which could rush candidates into SFAC.
“In order to appease this clause, I say the word appease intentionally, he gave me 19 hours overnight to review all the candidates, to move forward with the nominations,” Kadi said.
SFAC Vice Chair Anahi Ortega later in the meeting emphasized the importance of following proper procedures specifically for the appointments for committees like SFAC.
Ortega urged everyone to understand the gravity of these appointments and the $23 million dollars of student fees involved.
However, Arriaga insisted that he considered Kadi’s opinion of potential candidates, and had no obligation to provide a specific amount of time for him to consider applicants.
“I did consider Yusuf’s opinion, and, you know, we talked about it,” Arriaga said. “In the clause itself, it doesn’t state a time in which I have to meet with him.”
The agenda where the first candidate for SFAC was struck had been available to Kadi for twelve hours before the meeting took place, Arriaga said.
Arriaga also emphasized that he invited Kadi to interviews with potential candidates and that it wasn’t required of him to do so.
“I invited the Vice Chair into most of those interviews which she attended,” Arriaga said. “I provided communication to Anahi which could have been pushed forward to use, if it was or wasn’t, I don’t know.”
When questioned about his ultimate goal in bringing up the violation, Kadi stated that he wanted to ensure the process was followed correctly.
“I’m not here to make accusations for why certain actions were taken, I’m just here to share the unbiased information of exactly what happened,” Kadi said.
After an unmoderated caucus and more debate, the Senate moved to strike the potential SFAC appointments and restart the process for candidates.
The Senate now has the opportunity to potentially consider new candidates for SFAC, however, some senators commented that it was unlikely that there would be new candidates.
Additionally, Kadi now has an extended period of time to review candidates for SFAC and give his recommendations to Arriaga.
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“SGA President accused of improperly handling SFAC candidates, search for committee members extended” was originally posted on The Cougar