Updated April 29, 10:50 a.m.
The Associated Student Government Rules Committee voted not to pass articles of impeachment against Academic Director Muhammad Safdari on Tuesday night.
“It’s good,” the Weinberg junior said. “I mean, obviously I’m happy with the results.”
Former ASG Parliamentarian Will Upton, a Weinberg senior, filed the articles of impeachment with the speaker of the senate against Safdari on April 19. The articles were filed in response to an accusatory e-mail sent by Safdari to supporters on April 16 that included claims against then-ASG presidential candidate Bill Pulte, a Medill junior. The message was inadvertently sent to campus listservs, and Pulte subsequently lost the April 17 run-off to Mike McGee, a Communication junior.
The Rules Committee met last Tuesday to vote on the articles of impeachment, but was unable to come to a decision. The impeachment would likely have led to a closed-door trial in ASG Senate.
Safdari said ASG Parliamentarian Grace Adamson, a SESP junior, made a “good call” by delaying the impeachment decision by a week.
“I think once cooler heads existed we realized it was personal email,” he said. “There was no libel, there was no slander.”
The academic director said the body needs to follow through on its commitments to students.
“As ASG we need to move on and do the things we promised to do in the campaign,” he said. “We have to move forward.”
In the coming weeks, Safdari said his committee will be assigning roles and developing policy. At tonight’s ASG Senate meeting, Safdari said he will be “there to listen.”
“Despite this impeachment and the time commitment associated with it, I’ve been meeting with people this entire time – I’ve been meeting with administrators, students and faculty,” he said. “I’ll recruit come senators to join the committee and it will move forward.”
Safdari said meeting with stakeholders has been an ongoing process “prior to the campaign, during the campaign, prior to the articles of impeachment and after the articles of the impeachment.”
“I’m working on getting all the campaign promises done,” he said.
Muhammad also clarified that he had sent an message to supporters telling them not to distribute the personal e-mail minutes after sending out the first e-mail on April 16.
