The Undergraduate Senate will hold impeachment proceedings against Chairman of the Judicial Board Anthony Dunham Sunday, Jan. 29.
Dunham has been charged with receiving pay without completing his duties, which include:
•presenting case findings at Senate meetings,
•filling out time sheets
•and holding the necessary amount of office hours.
Dunham will appear before the Senate Jan. 29 to defend himself.
“It is not a great feeling to feel attacked by your peers,” Dunham said. “It is not a great feeling to feel that your work has been for naught.”
Many senators said they felt Dunham’s behavior was unfair to students, who pay Dunham’s salary through Student Activity fees.
"We want to make sure, regardless of what we are doing, that that money is being used with respect,” Senator-at-Large and lead prosecutor Joe Wisniewski said.
The Senate Committee of Rules and Privileges, which approves Senate action on impeachment, held a public meeting Jan. 26 to determine if the Senate had enough evidence to proceed.
Class of 2014 Sen. Frankie Irwin was the only senator who did not vote to proceed. Irwin said he thought a lot of the information for the basis of the charges was coming from limited sources, including Speaker of the Senate Brett Atanasio.
“Whereas we should let the whole Senate decide, we should also let them fully see what is going on behind the scenes,” Irwin said.
“Mr. Irwin’s point is valid,” Atanasio said. “Mr. [Al] Robinson [one of the co-sponsors of the bill to impeach Dunham] actually sent me a request for all the correspondence between myself and the Chairman of the Judicial Board, which I was only too happy to provide.”
Dunham said he was shocked by the actions of the Undergraduate Senate, but also said "I believe in the process of explaining what happened and letting students decide for themselves.”
The sponsors of the impeachment bill believe they have taken every measure before considering impeachment.
"Someone's really got to do a large neglect of duty in order to get this amount of attention," Wisniewski said. "We are trying to be as respectful to Anthony Dunham, as fair to Anthony Dunham, throughout the whole process, and also treat other people involved in the process with respect to whatever side they choose.”
The last Student Government impeachment trial was in 2009, involving SG Comptroller Matt Handverger. All charges of negligence and falsification of timesheets were eventually dropped, and Handverger resigned days later.
Dunham was Speaker of the Senate during those proceedings.
Dunham also wrote many of the current policies that dictate SG procedures, including those regarding the impeachment process.
Full disclosure: Sen. Al Robinson, a co-sponsor of the bill to impeach Dunham, works for The Eagle’s business office. The editorial and business offices are wholly independent of each other, and The Eagle remains committed to balanced, unbiased coverage of these proceedings.
hmongilio@theeagleonline.com
