The Student Judicial Board has agreed to hold a hearing against Facilities Commissioner Galen Roth regarding her involvement in office space allocation changes.
The petition, filed by Boris Lipkin and Addison Huddy, alleges that Roth had no authority in submitting changes to the Office Space Allocation Committee, a nonpartisan board that is currently vacant.
The Student Judicial Board granted the petition on Tuesday, according to an e-mail statement.
“We felt that bylaws were being broken when changes to OSAC were being made without a committee,” said Lipkin, a fourth-year business economics student who unsuccessfully ran for Academic Affairs Commissioner last spring.
During its Sept. 30 council meeting, the Undergraduate Students Association Council approved guideline changes proposed by Roth. Prior to that meeting, the Constitutional Review Committee approved the proposal.
Lipkin, referencing language in the guidelines and bylaws, argued that neither Roth nor the CRC had jurisdiction on OSAC regulations, which is meant to serve as a nonpartisan board free from the influence of councilmembers.
“This is a very grave ethics violation on her part, and we’re asking for her to be removed from council,” he said.
Roth denied the allegations of wrongdoing and said changes were imperative and were meant to revise procedure as opposed to the allocations themselves.
“Frankly it’s unfounded. I personally don’t think I did anything ethically or procedurally wrong,” Roth said.
“They’re pretty mundane things such as what dates groups should move out of their offices. All throughout this entire process the meetings have been open to all members of council.”
Issues of bylaws were addressed during Tuesday’s council meeting. Student Union Director Roy Champawat presented updated bylaws pertaining to office space allocation to the undergraduate student government after a week of reviewing old agendas.
The revisions to Article IV, Section E of USAC governing guidelines clearly defines membership in OSAC to students, not to council members, as stated in previous bylaws last updated in 2005.
Language in the OSAC guidelines say any changes must be made according to USAC bylaws so when Roth presented a second round of changes to guidelines, the issue of the outdated bylaws surfaced on Oct. 14.
Lipkin said Roth should have waited until the bylaws were updated to propose changes.
During the week, Champawat and his staff looked through old agendas to ensure clarity and updated documents on exact responsibilities of the facilities commissioner in office space allocation.
“I wanted to be personally involved to make sure that we brought the council the best guidance and information that we could,” Champawat said.
“We needed to make sure there was clarity in this matter.”
The Council tabled official ratification of the documents.
“There were huge problems with the OSAC procedure, and there were some changes that just had to be made,” Roth said on Tuesday.
“We wanted to update the bylaws to reflect and to spell out that OSAC should be composed of students who aren’t councilmembers.”
General Representative Natalie Gonzalez, a vocal critic of Roth’s proposal, cited a conflict of interest in Roth’s participation in changing the law.
Both Roth and Gonzalez said they supported the idea that OSAC should remain nonpartisan, but Gonzalez said Roth was wielding a lot of influence in the changes that were made.
Roth, working under the old bylaws in which the facilities commissioner acts as the chair of OSAC, said a stipulation allowed her to make changes that were “perfectly legitimate” as long as the CRC approved them.
“These changes don’t have political leanings. They don’t favor a particular slate and is meant to make the process more efficient and more fair, ” Roth said.
“I don’t see anything partisan about that.”