CORRECTION: In the print version of this article, the quote: “This is supposed to be professional, not personal. We need to learn how to keep bias out of this process” was incorrectly attributed to Kendra Summers. This was stated by Sophie Burkholder. The online version of this article has been published to reflect that.

After struggling to find a venue for their weekly meeting due to a double-booking of the JVH Auditorium, the Student Government Association (SGA) held their legislative body meeting in their office in the Student Center with members squeezing in on the couches to fit in.

Vice President Kendra Summers was censured for 60 days at this week’s Student Government Association (SGA) legislative body meeting.

The censure trial was brought up on two counts: the first being that the vice president should serve 9 office hours per week that SGA is in session, and the second being that the vice president is responsible for sending out the agenda and the prior week’s minutes 24 hours before the next legislative body meeting, which did not pass. Summers was originally supposed to be censured on three accounts, but the third was dismissed. 

Summers gave a statement on her opinion of the censure process at the beginning of the trial.

“I think we all know how I feel about the censure process,” Summers said. “It is … public humiliation and shaming. We need to fix the process, and the fact that we can have The Globe beat writer here for all of this is wrong.”

Parliamentarian Kairi Stallsmith presented the evidence of incomplete office hour forms in an email sent three hours before the beginning of the legislative body meeting. President Pro Tempore Nina Grund was the moderator of the trial.

Summers was notified a day in advance of the censure and was allotted five uninterrupted minutes for the discussions on each violation, according to Stallsmith.

During the open floor, in which senators and executive cabinet members could ask questions, Chief of Staff Sophie Burkholder said that she has been “very accommodating” with Summers and addressed that this censure was supposed to happen at an “even more [in]convenient time.”

“This was supposed to happen last week, which we all know was the election,” Burkholder said. “I know many of you [senate and executive cabinet] have been wanting to censure Kendra for a long time, and there have been too many jokes made about her office hours.”

Senators voted anonymously, and the first censure was passed.

For the second censure, Summers said that “this is way more biased than the last one” and said she has addressed the issue several times.

“Also, the fact that the email being brought up was when my car broke down and I was stranded on campus for two hours is so very personal,” Summers said.

“This is supposed to be professional, not personal. We need to learn how to keep bias out of this process,” Burkholder said. 

Recording Secretary Frankie Bracey acknowledged that sometimes she has “sent out the minutes late, which has caused Kendra’s emails to be late.”

“I figured that it is much better to have the agenda and minutes together, and I do not want to call out our secretary for saying that they are late on their part,” Summers said. “We have had a hard transition between secretaries and a lack of training for this position, but I did not want to publicly humiliate anyone, which I think is what has become of this.”

Graphic Designer Kari Dettorre confirmed that Summers’ agenda and minutes have never been more than “four to six hours late maximum.”

The second censure did not pass.

“The first censure will begin now for 60 days, which we don’t even have 60 days left in the semester,” Grund said. “So none of this literally matters.”

In new business, freshman Carsen Brunn was appointed as a senator for the School of Communication and Senator Julianne Bailey was appointed vice-chair of the Student Innovation Committee. The group is also hosting Pioneer Community Week this week, and volunteering events can be found on SGA’s social media.