Council Impeachment Unconstitutional

To the editors:

Last Sunday, the Undergraduate Council passed a resolution seeking the removal of popularly elected vice president John A. Burton '01 (News, Feb. 7). The council's decision to pass this resolution departs from the logical dictates of justice and invites closer scrutiny.

Pursuant to a 1995 constitutional amendment, Fentrice D. Driskell '01 and Burton were elected president and vice president of the council, respectively, by the undergraduate student body. Prior to the amendment, the president and vice president were elected internally by the council.

When the student body's constitution was amended to provide for the popular election of the executive officers, there are some factual grounds to believe that it was later amended in 1997 to require a vote by the entire student body to remove popularly elected executive officers.

As the sole officer vested with the authority to interpret the constitution, Driskell ruled last Sunday that the resolution to remove Burton from office through a vote by the council alone was unconstitutional. At the behest of the resolution's proponents--which included three defeated presidential candidates--and with an amazing disregard for the explicit reading of the 1997 constitutional amendment, the council overruled Driskell.

In its decision to overrule the president, the council implied that the provision for removing an officer that existed prior to the 1997 amendment was the controlling authority. Even without legal training, council members should have known that an amendment supersedes earlier provisions. By blatantly disregarding the constitutional requirement for a popular vote to remove an executive officer, the resolution's sponsors--with the consent of the council--have divested the entire student body of its exclusive right.

It appears that those candidates who lost in the popular election cannot accept the student body's rejection of their candidacy. Instead, they have chosen to reverse the student decision to elect Burton. Now these same people want to deny the student body of its right to a recall vote and a choice to retain Burton as vice president.