UPDATED: Feb. 10, 2017 at 6:20 p.m.

Student Association President Eric Evangelista is currently awaiting the verdict of an investigation stemming from his appointment of a cabinet member without opening applications to the student body.

It isn’t the first time in recent years that an SA president has faced an investigation and potential consequences for a violation related to a cabinet member.

In 2013, then-SA President Allie Curtis faced a vote of impeachment because she allowed Colin Crowley, co-director of public relations, to serve in that position even though he was on a leave of absence from the university. Crowley stepped down from the position after his status as a non-matriculated student became public knowledge.

Evangelista is under investigation because he appointed a student to co-chair of public relations without opening applications to the student body, even though the assembly asked him to do so.

Evangelista in January nominated Nicole Sherwood, a senior public relations major, to the PR co-chair position. The assembly raised concerns over the nomination at its Jan. 23 meeting and had requested that Evangelista send an email opening applications to the student body prior to the next meeting on Jan. 30, according to a copy of the violation notice obtained by The Daily Orange. When he did not send that email, he might have violated the SA constitution.

According to the current SA bylaws, any student can begin a petition of impeachment for any officer elected by the student body.

Curtis ultimately remained as SA president for the remainder of 2012-13 academic year, with the assembly voting against charging her with impeachment. But that came only after her cabinet adopted a resolution by a 7-2 vote calling for Curtis’ resignation.

Cabinet members accused Curtis of knowingly keeping Crowley on her cabinet during his leave of absence and hiding that information from the rest of the cabinet, something that the cabinet claimed prevented them from leading the university community.

The cabinet members’ call on Curtis to resign, they said, stemmed from what they viewed as a lack of accountability and transparency throughout that semester. She refused to resign, which led to the SA assembly voting on whether or not to impeach her.

The impeachment vote was held during a six-hour, closed-door assembly meeting that ended at 2:24 a.m. The assembly voted 31-20 against impeaching Curtis. To continue impeachment proceedings, the assembly would have needed a vote with a two-thirds majority in favor of impeaching Curtis.

“There’s one thing for sure, I’m going to be the most honest woman in politics,” Curtis said that night. “I’m really going to be pushing for communication and looking for deficiencies and voids in organizations.”

CLARIFICATION: In a previous version of this post, the source for the detail reporting the Student Association assembly requested that Eric Evangelista send an email to the student body prior to the meeting on Jan. 30 was unclear.

Published on February 7, 2017 at 10:49 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu