Monday’s Student Senate meeting lasted three hours, due to a heated debate that called into question whether an executive board member should be terminated from his position.

The hearing, initiated by student body President Eli Caywood and Vice President Cody Camacho, was to decide if Special Projects Manager Adam Hendryx had failed to fulfill the position’s responsibilities and should therefore be forced to step down.

According to the Student Senate Constitution, duties of the Special Projects Director are: coordinate Senate inaugurations and ceremonies, work with campus media as a press secretery, submit regular Senate Web site updates and chair the Student Organizations Committee. As chair of SOC, Hendryx was to review student organization constitutions and make recommendations to Senate.

Caywood began the proceedings with an opening statement that laid out the complaints against Hendryx.

“He has failed in his duties, caused anxiety among student organizations and frankly wasted their time,” Caywood said.

Caywood levied specific complaints against Hendryx, asserting that he waited too long to schedule the first SOC meeting this semester, failed to make agendas for each SOC meeting and failed to communicate with groups that were applying for SOC approval.

In his opening statement, Hendryx introduced what became the crux of his argument; he maintained that since the SOC Constitution stated that four student senators shall be appointed to the committee, which did not happen until this semester, SOC was unable to conduct official business until that time. Hendryx also admitted that he had failed to make agendas for each meeting, but added that he responded to all e-mails and held this semester’s meeting less than two weeks after receiving schedules from attendees.

Much of the two-hour hearing consisted of discussion about what the implications of an absence of the four required committee members should be. When BILSA senator Sarah Bitting asked Hendryx why he had failed to request additional members for the SOC, he maintained that he had made verbal requestspreviously, but had no electronic documentation of such a request.

In his closing statement, Hendryx again employed the Student Senate Constitution as his defense.

“These charges are unjust,” Hendryx said. “If you look at this with an unbias view, and review my constitutional duties, it is clear that these charges should be rescinded.”

Student Senate agreed with Hendryx and voted 7-10-1, not to terminate Hendryx from his position. Voting for the measure to terminate were BILSA senators Jonathan Predaina, Sarah Bitting and Nicholas Faber, LAE Senators Seth Johnson, Cory McCullough and Brandon White, and EMS senator Jessica Land. Voting against the measure was Hendryx, Legislative Affairs Director James Shannon, Gender Issues Director Sydney Kronkow, BILSA senators Keith Becker, Amber Langmeier and Tyler Fisher, EMS Senator Michael Van Heuklom and LAE senators Christopher Plaunt, Shane Stewart and William Kuehni. Diversity Director Quincy Bufkin abstained from the vote.

“I’m happy that almost all of the senators took part in such a difficult vote,” said Camacho. “I am also pleased that I now have an executive board member who is adequately motivated to do his job.”