On Tuesday night (Feb. 2), the Mississippi State University Student Association Senate completed the final step in an impeachment process that began last Tuesday (Jan. 26), and found SA President JoJo Dodd guilty of a campaign violation and breaking his oath of office. Punitive sanctions were leveled against him instead of removal from office.
Dodd said he did not think he was likely to be removed from office, and the motion the Senate made to remove his ability to veto was actually also against the constitution. Dodd said recently elected VP Hunt Walne is currently looking into the ruling.
“We are just going to have to work through it and see what sticks,” Dodd said.
The hearing began at 6 p.m. in Fowlkes Auditorium of the Colvard Student Union with Hunt Walne, who ran unopposed for SA Vice President, briefing the Senate on how the hearing would play out before SA Chief Justice and Elections Commissioner Jamie Aron took to the podium to direct business.
After confirming Dodd had in fact received citations issued by the Election Commissioner, (after he broke constitutional rules by endorsing then Presidential candidate Roxanne Raven), allegations were leveled against Dodd and he was given an opportunity to plead guilty or defend himself.
Allegations suggested Dodd infringed upon the SA election regulations and had broken his oath of office. Dodd plead guilty to breaking the regulations, but not guilty to breaking his oath.
Dodd said he had a duty to the MSU student body to improve the university as much as possible. Thus, he felt he had no choice in supporting Raven.
After closing arguments, Dodd was asked to leave the room as the Senate reached their decisions.
While it did not take much time for the Senate to vote Dodd guilty on both counts, the next step included deciding if he should be removed from office or face lesser punishments.
This portion of the hearing involved much back and forth between members of the SA Senate, but in the end, both motions to remove him from office failed, requiring a unanimous vote to succeed.
Although Dodd was not removed from office, the SA Senate provided sanctions Tuesday that requires Dodd no longer tweet from the official SA President Twitter handle, two months of pay are forfeited, and he is no longer allowed to veto Senate actions.
Dodd said nothing the Senate did will actually affect his day-to-day job.
“I’m just excited to get to finish what I started and I’m proud of the job we’ve done this year,” Dodd said.
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No removal of office for Dodd, sanctions given
Taylor Bowden
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February 4, 2016
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