The Student Government General Assembly meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 18 had the potential to be one of the biggest SG events in decades. For the first time in years, the Student Government Assembly had taken real action to work towards the impeachment of a corrupt SG official, creating a document listing grievances against SG Chief of Staff Chris Jordan and calling for his removal.

Grievances on the document, titled “In Support of Chris Jordan’s Removal From Office,” included Jordan failing to release interview notes despite their release being mandated by the SG Internal Rules, failing to communicate with SG agency directors, poorly handling an Austin City Council debate and shoving an SG representative at the prior General Assembly meeting.  

Despite this long list of very serious concerns, in the end, the SG Assembly chose to institute a zero-tolerance policy, delaying action to put a stop to Jordan’s atrocious behavior. Considering the long list of charges leveled against him, I just don’t see how the Student Government Assembly can possibly think that it’s appropriate to allow him to continue in his position. Allowing Jordan to continue empowers someone clearly unqualified and possibly dangerous to continue his atrocious effort, while setting the precedent that this kind of behavior will be tolerated in SG.  

If Jordan is allowed to get away with this long list of very serious and negative actions, what will other members of Student Government be allowed to get away with, both current and further members? When will real action be taken to clean up what is clearly a broken and worsening situation?  

I think that it’s time for members of Student Government to put their political agendas aside, forgetting about the possible strife they might have to deal with in taking real action to clean up the operation, and doing what needs to be done to ensure that it will have a bright future. I think that in the end members of Student Government, along with the student body and entire University of Texas community, will be better off as a result.  

When joining Student Government as members of the General Assembly, students took on the responsibility of representing their constituents. Allowing this kind of behavior to continue simply isn’t doing that.  

I am calling for members of Student Government to deal with this Chris Jordan situation and in the future take real action to ensure the well-being of this university.