Impeachment proceedings are proposed against the SGA President and Vice President due to controversial dismissal practices

Last Wednesday, the Student Government Association met for a special Senate meeting where Senator and Internal Affairs Committee Chairwoman Anahi Ortega, during scheduled reports, recommended the Senate’s decision to impeach President Diego Arriaga and Vice President Austin Craig.

This announcement and recommendation was made on behalf of the Committee and was the result of a weeks-long investigation.

“This is not a simple recommendation. I encourage you to ask questions about our process and considerations,” Ortega said. “The committee would like to recommend to this Senate that given the lack of effective leadership and potential disorganization, this Senate consider the impeachment of the current President and Vice President.”

On September 18, outreach director Bryanna Nimmons was fired over alleged performance issues during the SGAs End the stigma Event.

Director of External Affairs Khushvir Chahal and Director of Multicultural Affairs Parsa Torabi resigned after Arriaga reportedly offered him the option. Senate Speaker Tav Cockrell announced his intention to resign but has not done so as of October 10.

“I have been deeply disappointed by this government’s lack of accountability, communication and good intentions. I have been repeatedly hampered in my efforts,” Chahal said at the September 18 meeting.

This means that only four of the seven members are still active on the board.

A successful impeachment could mean the removal of Arriaga and Craig from their positions at SGA, leaving only the chief of staff and director of public affairs on the board.

During the meeting and in a subsequent interview, Ortega provided a comprehensive overview of the committee’s rationale behind its recommendation.

“The claim was that former director Parsa Torabi was given the opportunity to resign, but Nimmons was not,” Ortega said. “Nimmons was fired on the same day that End The Stigma failed, while former director Torabi had been warned in advance of his possible departure from the organization.”

The IAC, which is responsible for enforcing the SGA’s constitution and bylaws, alleged that Arriaga used discriminatory practices to fire Nimmons and allow Torabi to resign instead.

In a Senate session on September 18, Craig explained the executive branch’s reasons for firing Nimmon.

“She had the opportunity to work from the summer until last Monday. During her time running the event, she collected about 400 of the 1,100 T-shirts. We were short 700 T-shirts to serve as a reminder of all these children,” Craig said.

At the same meeting, Craig also defended Torabi’s resignation because Torabi mentioned that it would have a major impact on his resume.

According to the committee, the executive claimed that Torabi had expressed his intention to resign earlier this year.

“The timeline of events is essentially that former director Torabi, of his own volition, expressed concern that he wanted to leave,” Ortega said. “The directors have said we will accept your resignation at a later date, but that is your decision and in his preparation for MCAT that was the main reasoning.”

However, at the September 18 meeting, Torabi announced that he had been fired and had not resigned. Torabi did not cite MCAT prep as a reason for his vacation.

“As of today, I have been terminated from my position as director of multicultural affairs,” Torabi said in a meeting in September.

Additionally, Chief of Staff Daniela Gonzalez described Torabi’s leave as a firing.

“We came across a few other scenarios where we asked whether other members of his branch received similar treatment,” Ortega said. “It is the committee’s understanding that similar considerations have not been undertaken across the board.”

According to the committee, Arriaga cited that one of his primary reasons for firing Nimmon was that it damaged the SGA’s image with potential partnerships, organizations and other departments.

However, the IAC claimed that SGA had already suffered reputational damage without terminations, such as losing its food permit for the rest of the semester.

The committee said Arriaga’s criteria for terminating Nimmons was applied unevenly because the loss of the food permit prevented SGA from holding food events with other organizations.

“Based on the criteria outlined by the president, this should also be a criminal offense, but he said he believes it was a team effort rather than an individual effort,” Ortega said.

In a follow-up interview, Ortega mentioned various problems arising from the executive branch.

“There were discrepancies in the considerations for firing these directors, but beyond that there was a lack of coordination, communication and accountability,” Ortega said. “The leadership of the industry’s top executives led us to believe that this entire matter could have been avoided if proper leadership had been exercised earlier.”

The committee said it plans to release its final report on the investigation by October 11.

“In the eyes of the committee, this is a major failure of leadership on several levels,” Ortega said. “The committee would like to recommend that the Senate consider impeachment.”

[email protected]