The Judiciary of the Student Union held an impeachment trial for the secretary of the Student Union, James Feng ’22, on Friday, Oct. 22. On Oct. 17 at a senate meeting, the motion to impeach had gained greater than a two-thirds majority, resulting in Feng’s case to proceed to the Judiciary for a trial.
During Feng’s seven-and-a-half-minute personal statement, he restated many points that he addressed in his opening speech for the initial impeachment hearing at the senate meeting on Oct. 17. Feng apologized again for putting the union in a “tight and undesirable position” and saying that he is “clearly at fault” for his mistakes. Feng failed to oversee elections, submitting the election packet two days later than expected and providing incorrect and duplicated names of candidates, according to his statement.
Feng claims that he was not notified “specifically” by the senate that he was going to be impeached. “If the Union could have been more specific it would have been helpful,” said Feng after claiming that he was only notified over a text from the Student Union president and a Slack message.
Student Union President Krupa Sourirajan ’23 had sent him a text message saying that they needed to talk. Feng claims to have wanted a follow-up from Sourirajan on how he could have improved and that he was not warned of the consequences. Feng also claims to have consulted with the Director of Student Activities and the Assistant Dean of Students regarding the impeachment to which they both apparently agreed that Feng should have been informed.
Joseph Coles ’22 had added that there is no mention in the constitution that states that a specific information channel is required for the notification of impeachment, meaning the notification over Slack was justified.
“I want to take this opportunity to take ownership of what happened,” said Feng towards the end of his speech. Feng asked the judiciary for another chance, promising he would respond to all senate emails and messages within a 24-hour period and would accept responsibility for his actions in the future.
After the judiciary’s careful consideration of the violations of the constitution, James Feng was impeached from the union. The union will be holding special elections for the positions of secretary and a few seats in the Allocations Board for Member of Racial Minority students and Member for a three-semester seat.
