Former Tempe Undergraduate Senate Government Sen. Isabelle Murray speaks during a floor debate on her impeachment, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2014. Sen. Murray was impeached for breaking guidelines on speaking to media and for communication issues. (Photo by Ben Moffat)
Former Tempe Undergraduate Student Government Senator Isabelle Murray was impeached and removed from her position on Tuesday for violating guidelines and expectations and not performing duties designated to senators.
Tempe USG clarified the grounds for impeachment in a press release on Wednesday, saying the reasons were specifically related to violations and had nothing to do with Murray’s character or previous probation violations.
“No decision yesterday was made based on character and certainly not any lack thereof, USG thanks and commends Senator Murray for her service as we do for anyone that has spent time working for the students,” according to the release.
The specific grounds for impeachment include not following clearly stated guidelines and expectations of senators and staff in respect to media contact and relations.
This includes the public release of details concerning a student’s private case being handled by the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities and not performing duties designated to undergraduate student government senators. The grounds for impeachment also include not attending college council meetings as well as not attending committee meetings, according to the release.
Senator Daniel Martin said Murray had been placed on probation for missing committee meetings and college council meetings, and for speaking with The State Press about a bill to ban blackface from ASU events without first informing the senate president or Tempe USG president, but the probation played no role in the articles of impeachment being brought against her.
“The probation itself had nothing to do with the grounds,” he said. “It was essentially another thing. Whether or not if she was on probation she would have been asked to step down because of the FERPA (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act) incident, but because she was on probation as well, it exacerbated the fact.”
The case alleges that Murray shared sensitive personal information about another senator who had disciplinary actions being brought against them by the office.
“My understanding was that the primary grounds for impeachment was the violation concerning the Students Rights and Responsibilities,” Martin said. “Since there was a violation of ASU policy in disclosing private information to a media source, and since that falls under FERPA, she was subject to impeachment or at least request for resignation from that.”
Tempe USG President Cassidy Possehl said the discipline for leaking the information to The State Press regarding a student was handled was exactly how it should have been done no matter if Murray was a senator or not.
“No matter who it had been, no matter how it had been handled, no matter for the reason that information had been leaked, we have an obligation as a student government and an obligation as executives of any organization to maintain the fact that (Murray's actions) violate a student's, no matter who they are, FERPA rights, as well as University policies,” she said. “Completely aside from what USG thinks about this are two large things and as student representatives it is not right no matter how you look at it.”
Murray said she feels any FERPA violation should fall on the University and not on her as an individual.
“I’ve never had any training in FERPA," she said. "After speaking with experts on FERPA, they told me if you’re coming close to violating FERPA rules and you haven’t had training then it falls on to the University to be held responsible."
At Tuesday's USG meeting, the senate acknowledged that it did not provide FERPA training for its staff.
Media Guidelines
Speaking about the black face bill prior to speaking with Tempe USG Senate President Will Smith or Possehl violated the expectations set forth in a document Possehl said was given out at a retreat before the fall semester began.
The copy of a senator's expectations Murray received at the retreat listed no such guidelines for speaking with the media, Murray said.
The third item listed on the document provided by Possehl states that senators “must inform President of the Senate or President of USG of intention to address media before making any comments related or unrelated to USG."
The copy of the expectations Murrary received states under the third item, “No inappropriate status updates, photos, etc. are to be posted on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat etc. This also applies to comments and posts on individual staff members pages."
The remainder of the document Murray said she received provides no guidelines for speaking with the media.
Permission to speak
No violations to personal rights or hindering senators from speaking to media outlets took place, and it was not the intent of the guidelines agreed upon by senators, Possehl said.
“The statement that we gave to staff and senate about media relations has nothing to do with editing their opinions, has nothing to do with editing their statements to press,” Possehl said. “It only has to do with that we need to know before hand, just as a courtesy, so that we know from a student government standpoint what is going out to the general population through media .”
USG was caught off guard by the article about the blackface bill and did not know how to respond to an influx of requests for information, she said.
“The way it was portrayed in media was that she was working on a bill before there was any time for student government to have any kind of meetings to react to what happened, and before any kind of constituent outreach could have been done to, not just the people that directly brought her the concerns, but to the rest of her constituents to see if that was a concern they shared,” Possehl said. “Before any of that happened she was already quoted in a State Press article about the black face bill.”
Murray said she thinks the idea of having to first talk to superiors before speaking to media is a violation of her First Amendment rights.
“If you have to speak with your boss before speaking with the press, it is a big deal,” Murray said. “I think if we do our jobs well then we don’t need to worry about anyone going to the press.”
The information leaked should be more of a cause of concern than the actual act of releasing it, Murray said.
“The information was more disturbing, was worse than me passing it along,” she said. “Their idea of justice isn’t equally applied.”
With the different violations and emphasis on Murray's probationary period, Possehl said Murray was essentially impeached for not following the expectations for her position as senator.
“At the end of the day, she was impeached because she did not follow expectations of a job," Possehl said. "She had a job, she did not fulfill the requirements on a repeated basis and at that point just like any other job she lost it."
Murray said if she was impeached for not meeting expectations then everyone in Tempe USG should be investigated.
“If that were the case then I think every single senator in Tempe USG should be impeached because they all have not fulfilled expectations more egregiously than I have,” she said.
Murray is weighing her options for appeal. She said she is most likely going to move forward with the process.
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has two weeks to fill the empty seat. If the seat is not filled, Smith will choose someone within CLAS to fill the seat.
Murray said she hopes the USG remembers who it works for as the semester continues without her.
“Every time I’ve been in a USG meeting, I try to remind everyone that they are voting for the students they represent and not their own personal beliefs,” she said.
Reach the reporter at jshanco2@asu.edu or follow on Twitter @joey_hancock
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