MSA debates expulsion of chair, cites inactivity

The Michigan Student Assembly at its weekly meeting last night debated allegations that assembly Rep. Rory Diamond has not fulfilled his duties as Campus Governance Committee chair.

Diamond, an LSA junior, later denied allegations, although he was not at the meeting to defend himself when Vice President Andy Coulouris made a motion to remove Diamond from CGC because the committee allegedly has fallen behind in its responsibilities.

Twice a year, CGC appoints students to sit on a variety of administrative advisory committees, such as the Information Technology Division's advisory committee, recreational sports and Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs.

Although the CGC chair's job is to receive and make all student appointments in a timely fashion, Coulouris said this task has been left up to the MSA Executive Board because Diamond has not done sufficient work.

"Ideally, all these appointments would have been taken care of last spring," Coulouris said. But MSA President Bram Elias' "inbox has been flooded with e-mails from the (University) administration asking him where the appointments are," he said.

Diamond explained that every position in fact has been filled. He said former CGC Chair Mehul Madia sent e-mails to all administrators at the beginning of the semester and delays occurred when administrators did not notify individual committees that CGC was making student appointments to them.

"If the administration doesn't do anything with the name that I sent out, then that committee's position didn't get filled. Then those people called MSA to find out what happened, and that's how the whole thing started," Diamond said.

MSA Student General Counsel Josh Trapani said only about half of the committees and commissions that fall under CGC's duties have been filled.

But Diamond said "I think it's just one committee that didn't get notified" of the appointment, and this entire situation got blown out of proportion when the regents and SACUA inquired about appointments.

MSA Rep. Jennifer Vanroeyen, who is serving her second semester-long term as CGC vice chair, defended Diamond's position and suggested discussing the position's responsibilities with him instead of removing him from the committee post.

Diamond said the entire motion is a political attack.

"They're trying to make us look bad as conservatives. Last week they were attacking the far left, and this week they're attacking the far right," he said.

Coulouris said that the lapse in CGC appointments reflects poorly on MSA as a whole and could retard MSA's ongoing efforts to get a student representative on the University Board of Regents.

"The basic problem is that if we want to have leverage with the administration to get things done - like a student regent - then we need to make sure we follow up on our appointments. It's an important job and should be done well," Coulouris said.

The motion, which needs a two-thirds vote to pass, has been tabled until next week.

In other MSA business last night, MSA unanimously passed a resolution to become a centralized, non-partisan resource of information about the issue of affirmative action in general but especially about the two lawsuits currently challenging the University's use of race in the admissions process.

MSA is to create a special Website dedicated to this popular issue on campus. The Website is to include details of the lawsuit, opinions from different organizations at the University, research findings and an online discussion board.

The student government representatives hope the resolution, which also calls for MSA to set up a forum, will bring nationally renown speakers to campus, to debate affirmative action.

10-13-99