POINT: Senate acted fairly when it voted to suspend stipend

Last week, the Undergraduate Student Government Senate voted against the removal of  Commuter Sen. Jacob Ellenhorn, opting instead to withhold the remaining $250 of his stipend after determining that he had failed to uphold his duties as a USG senator. The decision, which was announced 24 hours following a three-hour hearing, came as a result of Program Board Executive Director Diana Jiménez’s formal complaint, which charged Ellenhorn with violating USG bylaws. By voting against removal and in favor of suspending Ellenhorn’s stipend, USG rightly reinforced the fact that student leaders must be held to the standards to the office which they were elected.

In her formal complaint to USG, Jiménez alleged that Ellenhorn acted contrary to his responsibilities as a USG senator, citing his failure to adhere to proper procedures when scheduling meetings with students, violating USG’s Code of Ethics by bringing speakers that contributed to a hostile campus environment and disobeying filming regulations at Program Board events. Though only a small majority of the 11 voting senators believed that Ellenhorn’s actions called for removal, a greater number of them agreed that the violations warranted some form of punishment. The Senate ultimately voted 9-2 in favor of suspending the remainder of his senatorial stipend.

Though Ellenhorn’s infractions certainly warranted some form of accountability on the part of USG, the senators were right in their decision to suspend his stipend in lieu of removal. The fact of the matter is that impeaching Ellenhorn and removing him from his role within the Senate with only one week remaining in his term would have been symbolic at best. At worst, it would provide Ellenhorn with even further ammunition to perpetuate the false notion that the impeachment charges were launched against him as punishment for his conservative viewpoints.

But the fact of the matter is that these impeachment charges have nothing to do with Ellenhorn’s political views. In fact, several conservative members of the Senate have managed to fulfill their leadership positions and even express dissenting opinions without violating USG’s bylaws. Rather, it has everything to do with his failure to abide by the very rules he was elected to uphold — among them the responsibility to abide by USC’s Code of Ethics and maintain a respectful campus environment. By suspending the remaining portion of his stipend, USG effectively emphasized that such a failure does indeed have consequences.

In response to the Senate’s decision, Ellenhorn released a statement in which he announced that he had never intended to personally benefit from his stipend and instead planned to donate the entirety of the $2,000 to the Wounded Warriors Project. But this announcement of his own generosity doesn’t change the fact that USG leaders are awarded their stipends because of the time they dedicate to upholding their leadership responsibilities. Just as one wouldn’t expect to receive a paycheck after failing to show up to work, USG senators earn their stipends by fulfilling their student government duties — regardless of where that stipend ultimately goes. By invoking the Wounded Warriors Project — an organization that has recently come under fire for alleged corruption after it was exposed for misusing its donations — Ellenhorn fails to address the purpose of student stipends or why a majority of his peers in the Senate felt strongly enough to vote that he shouldn’t receive his.

When Sen. Ellenhorn ran to serve in the USG Senate last spring, he did so knowing that he would be expected to serve responsibly and be held accountable to both his constituents in the student body and to his peers in USG. It is contingent upon these expectations that our student leaders hold office and are compensated fairly. By acting contrary to his responsibility as senator and violating USG bylaws, Ellenhorn put both his position and his stipend at risk.

Yasmeen Serhan is a senior majoring in international relations. “Point/Counterpoint” runs  Tuesdays.