In November of 2006, the current president called me into his office. He had a bright idea and Senator Romano, who was my vice-chair at the time, had given him his endorsement. Romual wanted to hire Sam Darguin in order to help Ralph Thomas, who at that time was VP of Clubs and Organizations. Romual thought it was a great idea, hiring a former political adversary in order to gain votes in this upcoming election. Senator Romano thought it was a great idea. I was going out of mind with anger.
I had spent practically the whole election season campaigning against Sam Darguin and filing a brief against him in court (which Senator Romano was one of the petitioners for) for campaigning in the office. Sam Darguin had violated USG law. The current president saw no problem with allowing him access to the USG office. Senator Romano saw no problem with the proposal either. I decided to resign as party chair that day.
Good government meant more to me than political victory. President Pro-Tempore Romano continued to defend ‘his’ President for the next three months against what he saw as unjust and unorthodox attacks from myself and my fellow senate colleagues and former USG Reform Party members. His defenses of the President’s practices seem to have no bounds.
On Mar. 20, the Senate met to consider the impeachments of both the President and the Junior Class Representative. Instead of helping the Senate with the effort to clean up government, weed out corruption, and disrupt unorthodox and hateful practices and the blatant abuses of power, Senator Romano decided to help out ‘his’ President once more. He complained of the supposed ‘lack of evidence’ concerning the resolutions calling for the impeachments of the Junior Class Rep. and the President, even though the Senate is not a court of law and there is no burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and the resolutions provided enough evidence concerning individuals willing to testify against the President.
Senators Shapiro and Antonelli provided first hand testimony of conversations involving admissions of guilt and VP of Academic Affairs Onochie made a plea in the senate asking for the impeachment of the President saying that though he apologized for the creation of the flyers, she did not believe that he was remorseful. One of the flyers depicted her in an unflattering manner.
VP of Academic Affairs Onochie has informed the writer that she will be willing to testify in court concerning the allegations she laid out in front of the Senate. None of the testimonies of the senators, VP of Academic Affairs Onochie or evidence laid out in the resolutions, sat well with President Pro-Tempore and to add insult to injury, the Senate leader suggested that the charges should not proceed in USG Courts.
Senator Romano’s argument was that this type of offense would best be handled in the non-academic judiciary. In other words, the USG should not discipline its members. So much for accountability in government, President Pro-Tempore. Senator Romano also submitted testimony concerning his knowledge of flyers depicting Vice President of Academic Affairs, Chinelo Onochie in an unflattering manner to the senate: ‘ As an elected officer of the USG Senate, I am duty-bound to testify as to my direct knowledge of circumstances surrounding the impeachment charges with are being brought against Presidential Romual Jean-Baptiste and the Junior Class Representative Mike Cohen. About two weeks ago, the President invited myself and my fianc’eacute;’ into his office to, among other things, to show us pictures of the Vice President of Academic Affairs Chinelo Onochie in lingerie. The President stated his intention to have flyers made of the pictures and distributed around campus with the help of the Junior Class Representative.’
THE LEADER OF THE SENATE KNEW TWO WEEKS BEFOREHAND OF DEROGATORY FLYERS CONCERNING A FELLOW USG COLLEAGUE AND DID NOTHING. Politics trumps ethics in the USG. At least in Senator Romano’s mind. What has he been waiting for? My colleagues and I left at the mere notion of corruption. Senator Romano still continues to defend the President and dodge questions concerning his inability to act on the matter concerning the flyers beforehand. Senator Romano would not have come forward with such a testimony if the President’s role in the scandal had not been discovered by fellow senators. A man who had even a shroud of decency would have resigned by now.
Senator Alexsandra Borodkin
