IUSA Congress: The last hoorah of a failed institution

On Tuesday, the IU Student Association Congress voted unanimously (this seems to be how they vote on everything) to not impeach an executive, Chief of Staff Neil Kelty, who openly admits to having funneled IUSA funds through his private company to repay a personal debt owed to him by another executive.

If this weren’t so serious, it would be utterly laughable.

The entire process clearly showed how the IUSA Congress is a mockery of a real democratic institution.

First of all, 17 members of Congress didn’t even bother to show up to what was arguably the most important meeting of Congress this year. Because the motion to impeach required a two-thirds majority vote of the entire Congress, this meant that every single one of the 32 members of Congress who bothered to show up would have had to vote to impeach Kelty.

Not a single member of Congress did (see the paper version for a list of Congress members who voted not to impeach Kelty — you can find their contact information here).

The entire Congress seemed to be in defense mode, with members practically berating Justin Kingsolver, who asked that the petition be brought before Congress. One member of the Congressional Central Committee who spoke on behalf of Kelty screeched hysterically before Congress that it was “more than a little insulting” that Kingsolver dared to bring up the fact that a member of the IUSA executive branch admits to having committed what was possibly a felony and wanting Congress to at least think about doing something about it.

How dare he!

When I was watching the impeachment debate take place, I was struck by how many, if not all, of the members of Congress were taking the motion to impeach personally, as if they were being attacked alongside Kelty.

They seem to have forgotten that the IUSA Congress is not a part of the executive branch but is there to provide oversight of IUSA executives, which is exactly what this impeachment would have done.

Although I can understand why they might be confused about that, since a member of the executive branch regularly ­— and perhaps unconstitutionally — presides over Congress. Article II, Section V of the IUSA Constitution clearly states that “Congress will elect ... a Speaker to preside over all legislative meetings, schedule legislative meetings, oversee congressional committees...” and basically do everything that Jennie Peterson, the executive Vice President for Congress, did Tuesday.

This is a clear violation of the well-founded principal of separation of powers. In many modern democracies, the executive may not even address the legislative body without approval or upon request of said body. Apparently, members of IUSA don’t pay much attention to things such as separation of power, constitutions or ethics in general.

I went to the impeachment hearing Tuesday fully expecting to see Kelty impeached. I didn’t see a single member of Congress at the Supreme Court hearing against Kelty. If a single member of Congress had bothered to attend the Supreme Court hearing where Kelty was prohibited from using his company for reimbursement purposes in the future like I did, they might have felt the same way.

Although, judging from the abysmal attendance rate at their own Congressional meeting impeaching an executive, I’m guessing that most members of Congress struggle to even make it to their classes at all, let alone attend an event outside of what was required of them.

To me, and many members of the public, it seems like the very definition of a no-brainer that an executive officer who openly admits to funneling public funds through his own private company in order to pay a private debt — and who doesn’t seem to see that there’s anything wrong with that — should be immediately impeached.

Apparently Congress disagrees. Thank God we already elected a new one.


E-mail: zammerma@indiana.edu