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A senator was dismissed following the April 8 meeting of the General Student Senate. Daniel O’Brien received an e-mail from GSS President and Student Government Vice President Matthew Gagnon alerting him of his decision directly following the budget meeting.
O’Brien, a junior biology major, said he feels he was dismissed following his objections in the budget discussion at the GSS meeting. Gagnon countered that the dismissal was based on on the fact that O’Brien violated the oath he took under the standing rules of the Senate. O’Brien is alleged to have broken absence rules, dress code, debate decorum and recognition by the chair.
“Ultimately, if I hadn’t been outspoken, then I wouldn’t have been fired,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien said he contested parts of the proposed budget because he felt certain increases in the budget could wait so large cuts didn’t have to occur. He said he felt that certain money has been misused by Student Government, including travel budgets and new furniture for the Student Government office over the past year.
“Just because we [GSS] get to deal with the money, it doesn’t mean we should get the first cut,” O’Brien said. “That is all of our money. Everything in the office went up and everything else went down.”
O’Brien said he questioned parts of the budget because, “That’s what I’m supposed to do, represent the science students.”
“Dan was not dismissed because of anything other than his failure to respect the Senate requirements. It had nothing to do with personality or philosophy,” Gagnon said.
O’Brien said he never expected to be fired following the meeting. He said he felt that he was being personally attacked and harassed during the meeting because of what he was saying. O’Brien said he did receive some apologies at the end of the meeting.
“Basically, at the end of the meeting I was being harassed,” O’Brien said. “I left the meeting, I never expected to be fired.”
O’Brien said he received the e-mail concerning his dismissal directly after the April 8 meeting. By the time he had returned home from the meeting, the e-mail had been sent. O’Brien said he hadn’t received a warning about his absences prior to being dismissed. Gagnon’s e-mail stated that O’Brien was being dismissed for two unexcused absences and three dress code violations.
Gagnon said in the e-mail that O’Brien had constantly broken rule six, section one of GSS standing rules, which is dress code. The dress code rule states that a male senator is to be dressed in the “appropriate shirt and tie and an appropriate set of dress pants.”
Gagnon said in the e-mail that O’Brien had also violated rule six, section two, which is recognition of the chair, and section four, concerning debate decorum.
“This [debate decorum] is the most gross of all the violations,” Gagnon said in his dismissal e-mail. “Increasingly in the past several weeks, we have all noticed your increasingly negative and hostile tone.”
According to GSS attendance records, O’Brien was listed for an excused absence at the beginning of a Feb. 4 meeting, and he attended the conclusion of the meeting. The attendance record also listed O’Brien for an excused absence on Feb. 18. O’Brien was absent on the meetings of Feb. 25, March 25 and April 1.
Gagnon said he keeps his own record of attendance, and his records show O’Brien was physically absent without excuse on Feb. 18 and Feb. 25 meetings. He said O’Brien was in violation on March 4, March 25 and April 8.
“I maintain a different list, and there have been some mistakes on the one we take at the Senate meetings, on Dan and a few other senators as well,” Gagnon said. “There is often confusion about excused or absent between the GSS secretary and myself, and I just reviewed all the absences.”
Gagnon said he found discrepancies when he researched the attendance records, where senators were marked incorrectly for excused or unexcused absences.
“[I] found none for the dates I listed, transversely, there are a couple people I found e-mail excuses for who were previously marked absent, and there were certainly no excuses from the dress code for anyone,” Gagnon said.
O’Brien said he had tests on Tuesday evenings when GSS meetings are held. He said he was never absent without letting Gagnon know prior to his absence.
“I’ve never missed a meeting without telling [Gagnon],” O’Brien said. “It doesn’t make any sense. I always have sent him an e-mail regarding an absence for a test. Since we have had two tests so far this semester he must be talking about those days.”
Under rule one, section one of the GSS standing rules, only the president of the GSS has the ability to dismiss a senator.
“Senators who are absent twice unexcused from the regular Senate meetings or any of his/her respective committee meetings in a given session shall be automatically dismissed from his/her Senate seat by the president of the GSS,” the rule states.
O’Brien said he plans to contest Gagnon’s decision. He said he plans on watching all the past videotaped meetings to point out other instances where other senators have broken rules but were not singled out.
“Basically, any way you cut it, Dan can try to find a loophole, but the fact remains he was in violation of at least four of the senate’s standing rules, and I can’t do anything about that. The responsibility lies on his shoulders,” Gagnon said.
