The saga of the impeachment charges filed against Student Government Comptroller Matt Handverger will continue to unfold this week, but the SG's conduct in the early stages of this undertaking has already invited questions about protocol and communication.
How Handverger should be handled remains an open question. Evaluating his actions requires facts, which, for now, remain unknown. What seems obvious, though, is that the SG acted questionably in the process of informing the comptroller of the charges against him and advancing them through a committee.
It seems totally inappropriate that Senator-at-large Jared Alves, who brought the charges, sat as a voting member on the committee that ultimately sustained them. This makes no more sense than having Alves -- or anyone else -- act concurrently as a plaintiff and a jury member in a legal case. It simply would not happen in the real world.
Alves's presence on the committee removes the one check between the executives and the senate. If there is no committee to objectively evaluate the charges, the executives will be unduly weakened. If protocol permits this conflict of interest, a policy change is in order.
Also concerning is the manner in which Handverger was informed of the charges. Why was it that Handverger first learned about all this from an Eagle reporter? The Eagle certainly aims to break news first, but that is disconcerting. An e-mail had been sent to Handverger informing him of the charges, but no follow-up phone call or text message was sent.
Since the e-mail had been sent late Friday afternoon, it is not unreasonable to assume that Handverger would miss the message. The Eagle and ATV were notified of the story before Handverger had any knowledge of what had happened.
To be fair, there are no SG's standards of protocol regarding communication during impeachment proceedings. Nevertheless, the standards of common courtesy and tact would lead most to call the accused.
Would it have been unreasonable for someone to make sure Handverger knew about the charges before two campus media outlets got a hold of the news?
