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shanscom
I'm a Newbie!
Joined: Dec 19, 2002
Posts: 13
Points : 0
Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Status: Offline
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 Posted:
Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:22 am
Post subject: RHA to impeach President (Reveille article) |
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RHA to impeach President
Boudreaux will hear charges tonight
LSU Reveille
by Ginger Gibson and Leslie Ziober
January 18, 2005
http://www.lsureveille.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/01/18/41ec0e6e0febb
Residence Hall Association President Nathan Boudreaux will face charges of impeachment tonight from three members of the RHA Assembly.
The charges against Boudreaux are based on what his accusers call non-compliance with the RHA constitution and Robert’s Rules of Order, mishandling funds and poorly representing the association. The impeachment charges come in the wake of a tenure marked by controversy, during which Boudreaux has been criticized for his administration’s spending habits and his dismissal of three RHA executive board members.
K.D. Linkous, RHA’s adviser, said that if Boudreaux is impeached, he will lose his room and board scholarships and stipend.
Katherine Gouner, president of the East Laville Community Council, Calder Lynch, president of Blake, Acadian and McVoy halls, and Warren Quirett, hall senator for the Pentagon, along with three other members, signed a petition to call tonight’s meeting.
The meeting comes after a confrontation between Gouner and Boudreaux at an unofficial Jan. 7 RHA meeting. At the meeting RHA members asked for the specific reasons why Boudreaux dismissed three executive board members last fall.
At the same meeting, the RHA members requested that Boudreaux call a meeting during the first week of school, Gouner said. Boudreaux said he declined because he wanted to give students a chance to settle into campus before the meeting. Boudreaux told them that if they wanted to call a meeting on their own under the constitutional guidelines, they could, he said.
Gouner remembers what Boudreaux said differently. She said that when Boudreaux refused to call the meeting, he told them that if they wanted to “impeach” him to follow the guidelines of the constitution to call a meeting.
Two days after this exchange, Boudreaux offered the three dismissed executive board members their positions back, Linkous said.
Boudreaux and the executive staff later decided to hold the first regular meeting tonight to discuss Snowin’ in the South, Boudreaux said.
Boudreaux told The Daily Reveille he has not intentionally thwarted the constitution and dismissed the charges as exaggerated.
“Rules need to be followed, but because you don’t like someone doesn’t mean you can come after them,” Boudreaux said.
Questions Raised
Boudreaux’s accusers say their charges are based on more than dislike. They are charging him with failure to fulfill duties outlined in the RHA constitution, including knowing and upholding Robert’s Rules of Order.
Gouner said Boudreaux violated Article 4, section 3.05 of the RHA constitution, which states “[the] most recent edition of Robert’s Rules of order shall govern the meetings of each Council except as otherwise provided in this Constitution or by procedural rules established by each Council.”
Boudreaux said the council and executive staff had agreed not to follow Robert’s Rules of Order strictly because it made meetings too cumbersome.
“We wanted to make the meetings run smoothly,” he said. “We went with the spirit of the constitution instead of the literal interpretations.”
His accusers say this is not the only time he has acted against the constitution. Gouner said that during an Oct. 26 RHA meeting, Boudreaux prompted Webb Womack, Kirby Smith Community Council president, to call a closed session. The closed session was open only to RHA members, Gouner said, and two Reveille reporters were excluded.
The RHA constitution allows for a closed session only when a voting member or member of the RHA executive staff makes a motion for a closed session, according to Robert’s Rules of Order.
Two-thirds of the voting assembly voted to close the meeting, and they discussed the 2005 spring budget from 7:42 p.m. to 7:54 p.m., according to RHA minutes.
But Webb was technically not a voting member when he moved to close the session, according to RHA minutes. He was not sworn into his office until the end of the meeting, after the closed session took place.
Webb’s motion was invalid because he was not a member, Gouner said. Article 10 Sections 1.01 and 1.03 of the constitution mandates that voting members be sworn in at the first meeting after their election is confirmed before becoming a voting member.
Last fall, Gouner and former Annie Boyd Hall Senator Lauren Stentz filed formal complaints during a meeting against Boudreaux, criticizing his appropriation of funds in the fall 2004 and spring 2005 budgets.
Boudreaux’s legacy
Boudreaux has been on both sides of the impeachment process.
In the spring of 2002, Boudreaux led an unsuccessful attempt to impeach former RHA president Michael Krom, a University graduate and lieutenant in the United States Air Force, said Krom.
Krom said Boudreaux claimed the election was invalid because Krom’s vice president, Chris True, was not a full-time student that semester. Boudreaux said the whole ticket should have been declared invalid, Krom said.
At least one student said Boudreaux has been an effective RHA president.
Meghan O’Hara, business junior and president of after-hours social organization Late Night LSU, said Boudreaux has been an effective RHA president. RHA and Late Night co-hosted an Oct. 1 poker tournament.
“I asked him to host the tournament and told him to let me know if he needed help,” she said. “It was a great team effort.”
Saying good-bye
One of Boudreaux’s more controversial moments was when he fired Executive Assembly members National Communications Chair Denelle Walker, Chief of Staff Amy Scales, and Information Technology Director Justin Gravois from RHA. He wrote them each a letter explaining that they were involved in too many other activities.
But he did not explain his reasoning to any other RHA members, Gouner said.
When other members asked for an explanation for the dismissals in early January, Boudreaux said he would organize his thoughts and give them his reasons in writing, Gouner said.
The dismissals are not grounds for impeachment because the constitution gives the president this discretion. But Gouner said the way Boudreaux handled the dismissals was the last straw.
RHA Vice President Doug Fields said he and Boudreaux decided to offer the three members their jobs back because they decided “it was the best thing.”
“We felt that they were the most qualified people to fill the jobs,” Fields said. “The presidential assembly and the community councils felt that way. We took their outcry to heart and decided that’s what campus residents want.”
Fields said he and Boudreaux did not have to hire them back, because the constitution allows the president to dismiss anyone on the executive staff at his or her discretion. But Fields said it was their goal to listen to the input of the campus residents.
Linkous said Gravois — one of the three who Boudreaux dismissed — contacted him for advice about the job offer, and Gravois accepted his former position Jan 11.
Gravois said both Fields and Boudreaux called him Jan. 9 and offered him the position.
Gravois said Boudreaux told him “he made a mistake and he had spoken with his adviser and others in Residential Life, and they did not think he approached the dismissals appropriately.”
Walker and Scales — the other two dismissed — both said they had not decided if they will accept the offers.
What now?
The future of RHA rests on the outcome of this week’s events.
Elections Commissioner David Dessauer said the impeachment process involves a series of steps. Dessauer said the RHA Assembly will present formal, written charges against Boudreaux at the meeting Tuesday.
The Assembly must approve all charges before there is a move to a second meeting, which can be no earlier than seven days after the initial meeting, Dessauer said.
In the second meeting, the approved charges will be brought against Boudreaux, members representing each side will be able to speak. The Assembly then will vote whether to impeach Boudreaux, Dessauer said.
Should Boudreaux be impeached, the RHA Constitution states that the vice president, Doug Fields, will succeed him as president. Dessauer said it is then up to the new president to fill the empty vice president’s position.
Dessauer said the process may be prolonged if either party appeals the impeachment vote.
Though RHA is pursuing the impeachment of Boudreaux, Linkous said RHA members are not focusing only on punishing Boudreaux for his mistakes.
“It’s a bigger picture than just letting go of the three and finances,” Linkous said. “There are decisions being made, and we are looking outside the box.”
Linkous said the root of the problem is the structure of the RHA constitution.
“What’s missing from this constitution is the check and balance of dismissing the executive staff,” Linkous said. “If they truly want power to be with the voting members, they should add that to it.”
Linkous said it is necessary to have some constitutional changes as part of the rebuilding process.
“This ordeal has brought to light many of the constitution’s problems and holes,” Linkous said.
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shanscom
I'm a Newbie!
Joined: Dec 19, 2002
Posts: 13
Points : 0
Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Status: Offline
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Posted:
Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:25 am
Post subject: |
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Hate to say it because Nathan's a friend, but it looks like he may have to start running for the hills.
Phil this may be a good article to spin a poll off of. "Do you think RHA President Nathan Boudreaux should be impeached and kicked out of office?"
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TheBigTymer
TigerU Supporter
Joined: Jun 17, 2003
Posts: 44
Points : 14
Status: Offline
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