The firing of former Director of Political Action Sabrina Ford from the Student Government Executive Board was upheld at a Judicial Committee of Appeals Tuesday night following a Student Senate meeting.
The vote, which was done in a closed session, was unanimous by the committee.
Emily Gillingham, who was not at the meeting and formerly served as a Senator, was appointed the interim director of political action in December. She now waits to be approved by the Senate to become the next official director of political action.
“We did a hiring process pretty soon after the Dec. 17 resignation of Sabrina,” Student Body President Antonio Cosme said. “We landed on Emily and she’s a great, great fit.”
Ford was removed from her position in December by Cosme, who said his action was due to Ford not fulfilling the job duties as outlined in the Student Government Bylaws. And Cosme said he was under the impression she had resigned.
Tuesday, Ford said she did fulfill all the duties of her job, or if she did not, she cleared her actions with someone who was able to excuse them.
Ford said she was appealing Cosme’s decision to fire her because she disagreed with the reasons given for her dismissal, and she said she was not notified in writing of her firing. She alleged the first evidence she saw of her no longer being the director of political action was seeing a Facebook post on Student Government’s profile announcing other people could apply for the position.
“I’ve never received any notice of termination,” Ford said. “The last conversation I’ve had information-wise was ‘If you don’t resign, I’m going to have to terminate you, ’ ” (in an e-mail from Cosme).
Ford said she was not simply appealing to win her job back. She wanted recognition of her opinion that the bylaws of Student Government were not followed in her firing.
“What I’m here today to talk about is a direct violation of the bylaws,” she said to the committee during the 15 minutes she was allotted to present her case. “It’s a necessity that we have bylaws. It’s a necessity that we have rules.”
According to Chapter 6, Section 3 of the Student Government Bylaws: “In the case of a presidential removal, the Student Body President must announce the removal at the next meeting of the Senate. Prudent reasons for removal include infractions of Student Government rules, infractions of the Student Government Code of Conduct and Oath of Office, the abuse of the office and malfeasance in office.”
There is no indication in the bylaws about how the student body president is to notify someone on the executive board he or she had been fired.
Cosme, in his remarks to the committee, said Ford announced to him and Student Body Vice President Muayad Mahmoud that she resigned. Later, he said, Ford emailed him saying she wasn’t going to resign.
Ford denied resigning in the meeting with Mahmoud and Cosme.
Ford wrote in an e-mail on Dec. 18 to Mahmoud and Cosme, “I am writing to inform you that I will not be resigning now or in the future.”
Mahmoud replied that day, “If I’m not mistaken, you gave the both of us a verbal response by stating you are resigning from your position.”
Cosme’s reply that day was: “Sabrina, from what I understood at the meeting yesterday morning you verbally agreed to resignation. If you elect not to resign, I will be forced to terminate your employment for Student Government. I apologize if you left the meeting under any other sort of understanding of the conversation that we had.”
Cosme said he had communication later on with Ford, and he was still under the impression she knew she was not the director of political action.
“I thought it was pretty clear what the situation was,” he said.
Among the reasons Cosme gave to the committee for firing Ford were: not showing up for work over the summer, not holding regular office hours, lack of clarity and an “actionable” plan and leaving work on events incomplete so other members of the board had to finish them.
“There was a lot of lack of accountability,” Cosme said about Ford’s job. “If you aren’t going to do your job, you aren’t going to keep your job with Student Government.”
Cosme also said Ford was tasked with bringing political figures to campus for events, and at these events the attendance was so low it gave the appearance “Eastern doesn’t give a shit” about politics.
Ford said an issue she had with the Judicial Committee of Appeals was Mahmoud’s position on it. She claims he should have removed himself from the board since he was in a position to review her position and reprimand her if necessary.
According to Chapter 3, Section II, No. 6 B of the Student Government Bylaws, the role of the student body vice president in relation to Executive Board members includes coordinating their work, coordinating and enforcing office hours, reviewing their conduct every semester and reprimanding them for any necessary reason, though only the president has the authority to fire members.
As outlined by the bylaws, Mahmoud served as one of the voting members of the committee to hear Ford’s appeal along with three senators chosen at random.
Senator Lois Vasquez said the committee “railroaded” Ford, and the whole hearing was a “travesty.”
“Vice President Mahmoud should have excused himself (from the judicial committee), as he was directly related to her hiring and firing and evaluation,” Vasquez said. “He clearly planned out all the questions with President Cosme so that he could say everything he wanted to and needed to.”
But Cosme said it was a matter of simply following the bylaws, which say Mahmoud would be a voting member of an appeals committee for anyone on the executive board.
“I could see how one could think that (there was a conflict of interest),” Cosme said. “I’m really disappointed with the entire process. We’ve never done this before, to my knowledge. I have never seen the appeals board before. From our point of view, it was good to have someone there who actually understood what had happened.”
