Graduate moderator could be impeached

Graduate and Professional Student Organization Moderator Paul Rohwer faces impeachment hearings Friday, where representatives of his organization will decide whether the leader’s actions over the past month have constituted an abuse of power. \nThe GPSO’s five-person executive committee, not including Rohwer, passed a resolution seeking to impeach the multi-term leader after he refused to resign from his post in a meeting earlier this week. GPSO representatives will hold the impeachment hearing at 3:30 p.m. Friday in the Indiana Memorial Union, Room M088. \n“His behavior reached a point that the executive committee could not stand by any longer,” said Jeremy Engle, the organization’s assistant moderator. The situation was not one they wanted to go through with, he said, but Rohwer’s behavior dictated the decision.\nThe GPSO serves as a voice for graduate students in University administrative matters and offers networking and other services for these students. The moderator acts as the principal executive of the organization. \nOn Monday, the executive committee met with Rohwer and pleaded that he give up his seat. Rohwer maintained that was simply not an option and declined their request – much to the chagrin of the committee members, who said they had hoped to keep the potentially damaging situation under wraps.\n“I won’t go out without a fight,” Rohwer said. \nRohwer was cited in three instances by members of the executive committee – all allegedly occurring in September – for violating multiple sections of the organization’s constitution. Specifically, executive committee members allege he became verbally abusive and demeaning toward GPSO Liaison John Scott during a Sept. 6 executive committee meeting. Additionally, he has been charged with mismanagement of the organization’s finances along with spouting “increasingly abusive and aggressive comments,” according to a copy of the executive committee’s resolution. \nHis fate will be determined by all present assembly members in a secret ballot during the meeting. A two-thirds majority is required to impeach the current moderator, according to the GPSO’s constitution. \nRohwer traveled to New York in mid-September and addressed representatives for the organization in a letter. In it, he wrote that “student government gets no respect and truth be told we are rarely a student government because the idea that we, everyone involved in the meeting today, can dictate any change is incredibly naive.”\nFurther in the letter, he wrote there remained very few people within the organization he continued to trust. The message was a declaration of sorts, where Rohwer projected a philosophy to his fellow assembly members.\n“I want to be a (sic) independent and original thinker,” he wrote. “I deeply respect people who have Integrity, Intelligence, and Energy.”\nFor many of this year’s representatives, deciding whether to impeach their recently re-elected leader will be one of the first issues facing them. Because most of the new representatives have not yet met Rohwer, he said having the entire executive committee working against him will pose a challenge in defending his position. \n“I’ve got nothing to lose,” Rohwer said, describing himself as someone who took a risk for what he believed in, but invariably had that risk backfire.\nMuch of the tension between Rohwer and the rest of the GPSO stems from a sour relationship between the moderator and Scott. Rohwer said he disliked Scott both on professional and personal levels and had attempted to force Scott’s resignation earlier this semester during the Sept. 6 executive committee meeting.\nMembers of the committee have since condemned Rohwer’s actions, describing them as persistent and unprofessional, according to the written statement.\nEven as the current moderator questioned the validity of student governments in his recent letter to the GPSO, Engle said the circumstances would not cause the organization embarrassment, though it was not ideal.\nIf Rohwer is impeached Friday he must immediately relinquish his position and will lose his seat on several University committees including the Bloomington Faculty Council, Engle said. Regardless, Engle said the situation would not affect any of Rohwer’s financial assistance from the University.