Drama on the Senate Floor

One of the main topics during Senate meeting was the removal of Senator Shawn Adamson from his Budget & Allocation chair position. Senate President Thomas Beaucham fired him two weeks ago, but the Senate had the chance to overrule his decision.

Beaucham gave his reasoning for firing the Senator: 

“For the last few months or so, I’ve given Senator Adamson numerous warnings about his behavior,” said Beaucham. “After our last senate meeting I realized that Senator Adamson is not willing at this time to consider the reputation of his committee, the senate or student government.”

“At this point, I expect every member of the senate to be committed to growth. This means giving your all and I believe that Senator Adamson’s behavior exhibited a continuing disregard for this core value. I will not tolerate anything that undermines this institution or its ability to perform well for the student body.”

Adamson had a chance to speak for himself and he stood up at Senate and decided to call out SG and the leadership inside SG:

“My purpose here is not to excuse my behavior but to show you that my behavior is not the principal issue at hand,” said Adamson. “If my successor receives the same treatment by the same environment as I did, the consequences will be as bad if not worse than what we are now experiencing (and I believe we can all agree on this). Firing me is blaming the symptom not the cause.”

“To surmise everything wrong with Student Government, I would say that it is a toxic environment. That is not to say that we do not do plenty of good, but to say this, leadership in Student Government, with few exceptions, will treat mistakes you make as things for which you should be punished, not learning opportunities,” said Adamson in his speech. “The day I was sworn into my office Thomas took me to the side and reminded me that he had the power to unilaterally fire me and that if I made slipped up he would. After that time, he told me on several occasions, to which a room full of people could attest, that he was collecting a portfolio so that if he needed to fire me, then he could.”

Students can read the rest of the speech Adamson made at the senate meeting here.

Senator Nadim Issa motioned to overturn Beauchman’s decision, however more than two-thirds majority voted against the motion.

Adamson does plan on staying as a senator for the duration of his term, which ends in the upcoming fall semester.

The Budget & Allocation chair will be filled in by Beaucham until a new chair has been interviewed and presented in front of senate.

Spinnaker has reached out for comment from the SG officials mentioned.

After Adamson was officially removed from his position, the changes for Title VI, the Election Code, were heard in senate for the final time.

Election Code

The changes to the Election Code were written by Elections Commissioner Aesha Soliman and has been a work in progress since the beginning of the summer semester. One of the more significant changes to the Election Code was the requirement of the randomization of candidates on future ballots.

The overall changes to Title VI were approved by all the senators and will be applied to the next election cycle coming in the fall semester.

During announcements made from the executive branch, Christopher Jordan, a previous senator and Budget & Allocation Chair, announced that he is now the acting Treasurer and will be going in front of the Government Oversight committee this Monday.

The last thing Senate accomplished was swearing in a new senator, Kyle Cohen, to SG. Cohen was confirmed and sworn in as a senator after a brief questioning.

The last summer Senate meeting will be July 24, where new appointments to both the executive branch and legislative branch will be questioned by Senators and either be confirmed or denied.

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