The Student Bar Association Senate passed legislation Tuesday to clarify that comments former senators made at meetings last year about a GW Law official do not represent the body’s official position, after they said officials complained to the body.
SBA Senators passed the Disclaimer Act, requiring all SBA meeting minutes to clarify at the start that statements made by SBA senators during meetings are “not the official stance” of the SBA. SBA President Amanda Hichez said passing the act was necessary because the SBA faced scrutiny from GW Law administrators last year over comments made by individual senators during meetings, which were mistakenly seen as the body’s official stance.
Hichez said SBA senators made comments at a November 2024 meeting alleging law school officials like Associate Dean of Students Jason Belk did not “actually care” about students and had knowledge of specific individuals who were tearing down pro-Palestinian and LGBTQ+ posters on campus, but intentionally refused to take disciplinary action against the students.
Former SBA Sen. Cherissa Lindsay said at the November 2024 meeting she met with Belk about the alleged removal of the fliers, and he advised the SBA “not to get involved.” Lindsay said Belk also advised the SBA not to publish a “statement of support” to show the body’s solidarity with pro-Palestinian organizations with flyers torn down.
Hichez said Belk and other law school administrators misinterpreted the comments made by senators when reviewing the SBA’s meeting minutes, which she said allegedly led Belk to report the SBA for student code of conduct violations.
“Comments like that are clearly one student’s opinion, but it was being attributed to the whole organization,” Hichez said.
A University spokesperson declined to comment on why or when Belk reported the SBA for violations of the Code of Student Conduct, if any hearings or other disciplinary procedures took place and the current status of the allegations against the SBA.
Hichez said law school Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew agreed to create a dean’s advisory committee with environmental law students after officials laid off Assistant Dean for Environmental Law Studies Randall Abate last week as part of broader University-wide layoffs where officials laid off 43 staff members across schools to address an ongoing $24 million budget deficit. Matthew said the school’s decision to eliminate Abate’s position was solely financial during a virtual discussion with law students last week.
Hichez said the committee, which will consist of environmental law students and law school administrators, will discuss the program’s future and how the nine students currently concentrating in environmental law at the juris doctor level will move forward at the school without Abate. She said she wants the SBA to find further ways to support the affected environmental law students as they navigate their program without a dean.
“How are we still going to support these students who came to law school specifically for this reason?” Hichez said. “So that’s just one way SBA can advocate for them.”
SBA senators also passed the Ex Officio Members Act, which allows officers of the SBA senate, like SBA Vice President Quinn Biever, Director of Legislative Affairs Lauren Farruggia, Senate Parliamentarian Callie Stevens and Senate Secretary Casey Barton to sit on the body’s committees in a non-voting capacity.
SBA Sen. Thaddaeus Canuel, who introduced the act, said the SBA bylaws lacked specific language about Ex Officio Members’ duties and privileges on SBA committees, and the act seeks to clarify their responsibilities.
“This bill largely just creates that classification, and just saying we’re officially laying out everything that ex officio members can and can’t do,” Canuel said.
SBA senators also approved four ad-hoc funding requests from student organizations and individual students, spending a total of $1,646.02 across the four. The requests lowered the SBA’s remaining ad-hoc fund to $10,981.78.
SBA senators allocated $63,372.20 to student organizations at the beginning of the year, saving just a $12,627.80 ad hoc fund for the rest of the year to distribute to organizations and individuals as they make requests.
Canuel warned senators that the SBA overspent its ad hoc budget last year by over $6,000, requiring a “bail out” from the SBA’s executive branch budget to cover the remaining funding requests. He said with the SBA executive dealing with a nearly $50,000 budget cut, another bailout is unlikely, and senators will have to decide which organizations and initiatives to prioritize with the ad hoc fund.
“I would say that our duty is less about making sure that we don’t overspend, and it’s more about using the ad hoc funds to best serve the needs of the student body with the funding that we have,” Canuel said.
SBA Sen. Aleksandra Parrish said although individual law students are allowed to apply for ad hoc funding from the SBA for things like purchasing conference tickets or transportation, she thinks senators should be prioritizing student organizations who make requests given the body’s tight budget.
“Ad hoc funding should probably go towards student organizations that benefit more people per dollar,” Parrish said.
Biever swore in 12 new senators, elected in a special election held Sept. 24 to fill first-year, transfer and other vacant senate seats. The elections of new SBA Sens. Dineshia Chatman, Ufuoma Oyiborhoro, Quynn Kennedy, Ben Graham, Ibrahim Nazir, Aya Almasri, Hannah Billings, Carly Choppin, Peter Duffy, Matthew Connor, Aleksandra Parrish and Luke Bella, were each certified and the members took their oaths before the senate.
SBA Director of Elections Kourtney Thompson said five senate seats still remain vacant following the special elections, including one 2L, two 3L, one 4L evening and one evening-at-large seat. Thompson said although three write-in candidates garnered votes in the evening-at-large seat election, no candidate reached a majority, leaving the seat unfilled.
Before this spring’s SBA elections, Hichez can appoint law students to fill the remaining vacancies, who would then face the senate for confirmation to an interim position.
The next SBA meeting will be held Oct. 21 at 9 p.m. in the Burns Moot Court Room in Lerner Hall.
