SGA judiciary rules in favor of AWS

The Student Government Association Judicial Branch deliberated for more than 30 minutes before ruling against the Senate in the matter of The Association of Women Students versus Student Government Association Senate.
The November 14 hearing addressed the question of whether the Student Senate has the authority to investigate a financial issue. According to the Opinion of the Court, authored by sophomore Justice Jamal A. Taylor, the Court ruled 6-1 that the Senate may only investigate records between the end of the fiscal year, June 30, and the date set by the university for the beginning of the academic school year.
The court’s decision means the recently launched investigation into the misuse of student money by AWS has been suspended indefinitely, a decision that Junior Class Senator and Senate President Pro-tempore Carey Ash said is a betrayal of trust between the student body and the student government.
“Stopping the Senate’s investigation into the misuse of the student’s money does not send the signal that the student government is trustworthy,” Ash said.
The court’s ruling also stripped the Committee on Finance’s ability to allocate funds to other campus organizations since the Senate investigates the financial history of the organization before awarding funds.
AWS was the first organization to present opening arguments. Allecyn Gay, president of AWS, repeated her claim that the Senate’s investigation of her organization’s financial records had nothing to do with misappropriation of funds on behalf of AWS and was more of a personal attack against her.
Gay said the investigation stemmed from an argument between herself and Senators Kimberly Fleming and Davitria Stubbs over seating at the October 14 Jackson State football game.
Fleming, secretary of the Student Senate, made the motion during an October 24 meeting, initiating the investigation into the financial records of AWS.
Ash represented the Student Senate and the Committee on Finance. In his opening arguments, Ash said although it is not written in the Constitution, the power of investigation is an inherited power of the Senate, and without that ability, “the student Senate would be giving out student money without any background research on the applicant organization and that would be a gross mismanagement and a lack of good stewardship on the part of the Student Senate.”
Ash also said under the SGA constitution, the court is only granted the authority to rule on misappropriation and cannot investigate.
In the opinion of the court, Taylor said although the arguments of AWS had “merits,” the court would only rule on matters based on laws that govern student organizations.
“The Court will not tolerate personal matters to be brought into legislative processes,” Taylor said. “No branch of government will be allowed to go on ‘witch hunts’ based on hearsay or personal bias.”
Taylor also said much of the evidence presented by Ash was irrelevant and the judiciary branch has the implied and inherent power to be actively consulted to investigate matters that arise outside of the time allotted to the Senate to investigate records.
Johnathan Hill, chief justice, stated in his dissenting opinion that in order for the court to rule on misallocation of funds, an investigation must first be conducted, an inherent power of the Senate.
Hill also said the court was not within its rights to place a timeline on Student Senate investigations because “the court can only interpret or enforce what statutes have already been passed by the student senate.”
According to Ash, the Senate plans to appeal the decision of the Judiciary Branch to the University Administration.
In the November 21 Senate meeting, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution that will ask the Office of Student Affairs to freeze the budget of AWS until the Senate’s investigation is over.
Ash said he is hopeful the appeals process will be a short as possible because he is adamant on finding the truth.
“I will find the truth and pursue it at all costs,” Ash said. “When I do, the students will know.