After a marathon six-hour, closed-door meeting that ended at 2:24 a.m., the general assembly voted against charging Student Association President Allie Curtis with impeachment.

At 1:52 a.m., Curtis emerged from the doors of Maxwell Auditorium and shared a long embrace with Vice President Duane Ford. The general assembly remained in the auditorium for an additional 30 minutes before emerging with the verdict — it voted 31-20 against impeachment.

Curtis said this was “without a doubt, the hardest week of my life.”

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

Prior to closing the doors to the public for an executive session, Curtis fielded questions and comments from those in the gallery, as well as cabinet members during the meeting. The executive session came after regular business, including the budget meeting, concluded. The general assembly needed a two-thirds vote to charge Curtis with impeachment.

In an emergency cabinet meeting Thursday, SA cabinet members approved a resolution calling for Curtis’ resignation. Curtis didn’t resign and instead, the vote to proceed with the impeachment process was put in the hands of the general assembly.

Cabinet members said the resolution calling for Curtis’ resignation arose from issues of accountability, accessibility and transparency raised at different points in the semester. The resolution was drafted after cabinet members learned Curtis allowed Colin Crowley to serve as public relations director without being enrolled in classes and withheld the information.

During the questioning that preceded the closed-door meeting on Monday, some came to Curtis’ defense while others, including Comptroller Stephen DeSalvo, questioned her more fiercely.

“I don’t think that you would ever do anything to put this organization you’ve dedicated yourself to since freshman year in trouble,” said a gallery member, addressing Curtis.

During the initial round of questioning, DeSalvo pressed Curtis on the conversation she had with Chief of Staff PJ Alampi and Crowley a couple of weeks into the semester. During that meeting, Crowley informed the two he would not be enrolling in classes this semester. Curtis maintained she and Alampi permitted Crowley to serve as co-director of the public relations committee based on their interpretation of a bylaw in the Registered Student Organization handbook that states non-students can serve as associate members if the organization’s constitution permits. Non-students, however, are not permitted to hold cabinet positions.

Alampi has previously said the bylaw in the handbook was not used by Curtis as a reason to justify keeping Crowley as co-director of the public relations committee until weeks after the initial meeting. Crowley relinquished his formal voting power and general assembly representative seat after notifying Curtis and Alampi he was not enrolled in classes.

After DeSalvo posed his question, SA entered an executive session. The decision to close the meeting was done so members could speak openly, said Board of Elections and Membership Chair Emily Ballard.

But Taylor Carr, who stepped down as the 56th Session’s chief of staff, said closing the room to students and press raises issues of transparency.

“I don’t think you can blast the president for lack of transparency and then close the doors to constituents that are actually here to see what is happening to their student government,” he said.

Curtis’ father, Mark Curtis, sat on a bench outside of the auditorium as the executive session wore on.

Mark Curtis, who made the trip from Rhode Island, said he doesn’t believe his daughter was ill-intentioned in allowing Crowley to continue serving. He said she kept Crowley’s academic status from other cabinet members in sensitivity to Crowley, as he was unable to enroll due to finances.

“We know in our hearts she would never do anything to intentionally hurt the Student Association,” he said. “She loves Syracuse University.”

After being told of the vote, Curtis hugged her father and Ford, thanking them for their support.

“I’m overwhelmed I’ll be able to stay in this role,” Curtis said. “I think it’s going to do great things for the student body that I can persist in this capacity.”

Published on April 2, 2013 at 3:58 am

Contact Debbie: [email protected] | @debbietruong