ASPSU eligibility issues

The student government vice president was forced to serve as president for three days in mid-March, due to the president’s noncompliance with academic standards set forth in its constitution. The issue has since been resolved through a technicality, but other members of ASPSU may have been in the same situation.

Every member of ASPSU is bound by its constitution to maintain certain academic standards to serve in elected, hired or appointed positions. On Sunday, March 27, Eddie Hallman, ASPSU Vice President, received a call from Assistant Director of Student Activity and Leadership Programs Domanic Thomas informing him that he was “acting president” until academic eligibility requirements could be met by President Jonathan Sanford. 

“There was a period of time that Eddie Hallman was acting president and that wasn’t widely announced,” Thomas said.

It is the responsibility of the university to inform ASPSU officials or members if they do not meet academic requirements. According to the constitution, if the president does not meet eligibility requirements, the vice president is acting president. If both the president and vice president are not eligible, then the chief justice of the Judicial Board acts as an interim president.

Hallman also faced eligibility difficulties, which he said were resolved quickly.

“That was the case—kind of—but it was bureaucratic, not academic…Both of our situations were resolved without anything shady going down and we’re excited to finish up our terms in office,” Hallman said.

The Judicial Board members were made aware of the issue during spring break, and addressed it at their first meeting of the term. The board decided that the students had one week to fix things or the seats would be declared vacant.

By Tuesday, March 30, Sanford had worked with his professors to finish his requirements and was reinstated as president.

“We’re all official still, everyone on executive staff is fully on right now,” Hallman said.

Sanford claims Thomas misunderstood the ASPSU Constitution and mistakenly promoted Hallman.

The constitution states that undergraduate students who are elected, appointed or standing as candidates for office must maintain a minimum 2.00 GPA per term and are required to be students in “good” standing, as defined by the university, throughout the term of office. Undergraduates must complete at least four academic credits per term, excluding credits earned through ASPSU participation and classes designated as pass/no pass, incomplete or otherwise not awarded a GPA, as defined by the university.

Sanford said a professor allowed his grade to be entered as an “X” rather than as an “Incomplete” until he completed some work, after which time the professor entered a grade. According to the university’s grading policy, an X or Y grade does not count toward the calculation of grades and it is used when there is an insufficient basis for a grade.

“The way it’s going is that I had an ‘X’ on my account, it says [in the constitution] only incompletes, and that’s what people have been cracking down about,” Sanford said.

According to Thomas, other students faced similar situations of ineligibility, a list of whom was sent to the J-Board, but the Vanguard was unable to obtain a copy of the list by press time. Reasons that these ASPSU members couldn’t meet requirements ran the gambit from grade issues to number of credits passed to minimum class registration requirements, Thomas said.

“Some chose to resign, some have fixed their situation to be in line with the constitution, but not the student stipend agreement,” Thomas said.

Yet, he went on to say, “This was the lowest [number of students not qualified] I’ve seen in the last few years.”

The student senate is planning to take a vote in late April on a proposed change to the constitution regarding half-time requirements. The change would be that ASPSU members would have to be enrolled in at least six, rather than four, academic credits to keep their positions. This change would bring the requirements in line with the Dean of Students’ Stipend Policy.

The senate will have to decide if it takes immediate effect or not. If it does, the change will affect a lot of students, Thomas said.

“The four to six change is one that I absolutely applaud,” he said.

Student-leaders must meet a host of requirements in order to keep their positions. All students receiving a stipend from the university fill out Student Stipend forms in which they agree to specific terms, including maintaining satisfactory academic performance.

The ASPSU constitution also has several other requirements for its officials to comply with throughout the academic year. The constitution can be found on its Web site at www.aspsu.pdx.edu.