By Valerie Gauman Lucas
The University’s Student Government Association (SGA) meeting lasted for nine hours this week, the longest senate session this academic year, due to a two-hour delay because of internal SGA issues involving the status of senator and potential presidential candidate Peter DiSilvio.
The meeting began at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday and it ended at 3:35 a.m. onWednesday.
Issues involving DiSilvio arose after new information surfaced that both he and his running mate, fellow Senator Carlos Cruz, may be out of the race due to DiSilvio’s absences at senate meetings. Presidential Ccndidate Kate Legnetti and Brent Weitzberg were apprised of the situation after they participated uncontested in the second round of SGA debates on Monday evening.
According to Legnetti, DiSilvio has not been present at four previous senate meetings, which according to the SGA Constitution, disqualifies him as a potential presidential candidate.
“Brent and I weren’t notified to what was happening until Sunday afternoon,” Legnetti said. “What happened was, our Constitution states, you could not have more than four absences in a year. If you accrue two absences, then you can be reinstated.”
Though DiSilvio was reinstated last fall into senate as the Club Affairs Chair, the SGA Constitution states if an SGA member accumulates more than two absences, the member will be removed from Senate. Additionally, a senate member cannot be reinstated more than once.
“As a presidential ticket, you need to be a participating member of senate, so he is technically no longer on a ticket,” Legnetti said on Monday evening.
To get the absence removed, the student would need to consult with the Ethics and Conduct Chair Ashley Kowal, a sophomore, to cancel out any attendance issues. However, rumors among the student body spread that Kowal, a staff member on the Kate and Brent campaign, may have set up DiSilvio and Cruz. Legnetti firmly denied any connection.
“People said I have schemed this because the person in charge of this is the ethics and conduct chair, Ashley, and she’s one of our friends,” Legnetti said. “She works on our campaign. And the fact that people would insinuate that is really unfair. She’s been nothing but fair this year. Pete did not let her know [of his absence] after it became public knowledge.”
At the Rules Committee meeting at 6:17 p.m. on Monday, the SGA minutes state that “Peter DiSilvio appealed the decision of the Ethics and Conduct Chair: Decision of the Chair was not to remove an absence.” The vote was a tie 3-3-1 and Jared Berry, Rules Committee Chairman voted “no,” making the final vote 3-4-1. The meeting adjourned at 7:41 p.m..
As of Tuesday night, the gallery overlooking the senate in the Greenhouse was unusually full, primarily with representatives from clubs for the appropriation appeals section of the meeting. But also sitting in the gallery were, at that point, former senator Peter DiSilvio, along with a handful of supporters, including former Senator Elyse Emmerling, a junior drama and history major.
“I believe that the Rules Committee is biased toward Kate and Brent because the chair is involved in their campaign,” she said. “I feel like the cards were stacked against Pete… I also feel the appeal was handled incorrectly. I’m very disappointed in the outcome.”
Legnetti recused herself, leaving Parliamentarian Pat McDonald, a senior in charge, prior to the passing of a motion (27-9-1) which officially brought the appeal before the senate for review. Consequently, this allowed DiSilvio to come forward to give his side of the story.
According to DiSilvio, his two absences were due to not handing in a monthly report for March and for excusing himself from his own meeting without notifying Kowal 24 hours in advance. What DiSilvio was appealing was that he should have an absence removed, citing the second line in the law pertaining to absences (302.5.) The line states, “Members of the senate must pre-approve said event with the Ethics and Conduct chairperson to view the event.”
“I went to the ‘Songs of Love’ event last week and because it was stated in senate that the event would remove an absence, I thought that that counted as members of the senate getting approval,” DiSilvio said. While he acknowledged that this statement was lacking from last week’s minutes, he defended himself, saying there are often things that are said and do not make it into the minutes as Stephanie Caruso, a junior film major and the SGA secretary, “is only human.”
Additionally, DiSilvio said that while he was aware that he was required to inform Kowal of his desire to use the event to remove an absence, he was not aware he had to do so in advance or that “there was a clock on it.”
Kowal then presented her case. She said that continuing to use DiSilvio’s interpretation of “members of the senate” as meaning members of the senate as a whole, the next line stating “members of the senate must not be affiliated” would therefore mean that “members of the senate as a whole must not be affiliated with other clubs that are co-sponsoring said event.”
Therefore, because IFSC co-sponsored the event she said that “the event would not count to take away an absence.”
Regarding the time limit, Kowal said it is the senator’s responsibility to know the rules concerning absences, because once the absence is recorded, the appeals process is the only recourse a senator can take, as they are no longer a member of the senate.
“The issue is that I was not notified to take away the absence,” Kowal said. She then cited two examples where senators this semester followed such protocol.
The speakers list was then opened and debate ensued within senate as well as with frequent comments from speakers in the gallery. Legnetti stepped in, speaking from the gallery at one point, getting the senators back on track by highlighting that the issue up for debate was not regarding whether the event was approved, but rather regarding whether the involved senator pre-approved the event and notified the Ethics and Conduct chair that he desired an absence removed. The debate then moved on to the integrity of The Ethics and Conduct chair and whether she made allowances for other people and circumstances.
Eventually there was a motion to vote by secret ballot and the appeal passed 27-14-0. Scattered cheering broke out in the gallery and on the senate floor upon the announcement of the decision.
The next obstacle of the evening was deciding whether the appeal would take place instantly or after the minutes were passed in the following weeks, a question asked by a senator.
“Well isn’t that a good question,” said McDonald. “I don’t know, give me a minute,” he added.
Eventually it was decided that the appeal would go into effect instantaneously and the minutes’ approval was for archival purposes only.
Legnetti then returned to her post and said, “On behalf of this body I’d like to apologize for the embarrassment that was just caused and the time delay,” prior to officially starting with the first time slot for appropriations.
Much later in the evening-technically early the next morning-after the last club was seen by appropriations, as per usual senate custom, the senate moved on to the “For Good of The Order,” at which point Rules Committee Chair Jared Berry, who is also a senior staffer in Legnetti’s campaign, spoke up, citing a rule saying that DiSilvio was ineligible to run due to him being a non-member of SGA for a period of time.
The meeting ended at 3:35 a.m. with McDonald ruling that DiSilvio was indeed not a member of SGA for a period of time, and therefore ineligible to run for president.
“It was a really tough call because the constitution was very ambiguous as to what happens in this situation and as to whether or not he was actually not a member or not for that period of time,” McDonald said after ruling on the matter. “So it’s really hard to call on. However, the way things have been happening the past few days, I think it is pretty clear that he wasn’t a member of the organization.”
Berry spoke after the meeting and clarified saying, “The rule states in the constitution, section 214.3, sub-section B Candidacy Requirements, and this is under the section requirements for the office of president and vice president, “‘Candidates must attend an informational meeting to be put on by the election commission. The meeting will outline the proper procedures as to their candidacy. Candidates must be active members of Student Government Association from the time of the information meeting until the election. Those whom do not comply will be unable to run for the election.’
“Basically, Pete had received two absences in addition to being reinstated last semester, which puts him up for removal,” Berry added. “He did appeal the absences to the Rules Committee and the decision was overturned by the senate tonight. However, either way, there was a period of time, specifically Sunday when he was removed until today he was considered an inactive member, because he was not a member of senate. So that’s where it stands.”
DiSilvio held his head in his hands after the meeting. “Tonight, the senate ruled in my favor saying that I was allowed to resume my duties as a senator, that I was still here,” he said. “And now, a small minority is using technicalities and rules to deprive me of my right to run for presidency of Hofstra University’s student government.
“I have only ever wanted to help people, since the day I got here until right now, until the day I leave, that’s all I ever wanted. And the fact that people trying to, in certain ways, prevent me from doing that to the best of my abilities, people who at one point or another I considered friends, hurts me beyond words. I also went on record that the other campaign has told me they are not behind this and I believe them. I do not think this was an attack orchestrated by Brent and Kate. It may be that supporters of theirs or people who dislike me may be orchestrating it, but it’s not Brent and Kate,” he said.
While DiSilvio and Cruz were not on the ballot Wednesday morning, Weitzberg said that, “When he was found out to be unable to run we spoke and Kate went to the elections commission and worked to get them to be on the ballot, a little before 2 p.m.”
Weitzberg defended Berry’s integriy, and emphasized fairness. “We want a competition on the ballot, this has nothing to do with our campaign, it was simply that Pete didn’t fulfill his civic duties,” he said.
At press time, DiSilvio and Cruz were on the ballot along with Legnetti and Weitzberg. If DiSilvio and Cruz win the election and if the minutes from Tuesday’s meeting are passed as is, at next weeks senate’s meeting, they will be declared the winners by the elections commission, according to a source who would speak candidly only if they remained anonymous.
Assistant News Editor Kimberly Chin and Photo Editor Jacqueline Hlavenka contributed reporting to this story.