WCU students gathered in demonstration against SGA President, David Rhode. Photo by Benito Garcia-Garcia.
This story was co-reported by Nate Hadley.
SGA president, David Rhode, was not removed from office by a one vote majority of senators voting to keep him in (17 to 16), but the students are not happy. In the eyes of many present at the hearing and watching online, Rhode admitted to committing a crime by accepting funding to attend the Turning Point USA conference and broke the rules. See more details on the impeachment hearing from Dec. 2.
Some students reacted during the hearing.
“The question was asked. . . and he answered yes, that is a crime,” said student Thomas Golden referring to Rhode admitting to going on the conference. “Personally, I don’t understand [the decision].”
Golden had a message to SGA as a constituent. “The president told y’all that he committed a crime, and y’all didn’t vote him out. So by definition y’all have lost y’alls authority.”
Student Ivan Shires started a petition a day after the hearing. As of now the petition has around 650 signatures requesting that student input be taken into consideration as to whether or not Rhode is removed from the presidency.
In a Facebook message Shires said:
“I would like SGA and the Administration know that this isn’t an attack on them, I believe when ran properly, SGA is a fantastic opportunity to have in a collegiate setting. However, I’m afraid in situations like this, where SGA exhausts much of their abilities in house, the student body should be able to make up the difference as long as it is fair by the same, if not similar principles as if they were tried within SGA. As for the administration, I would like to see more transparency, especially dealing with such a special circumstance, students have commented that they have fear in the leadership based on David’s accused wrongdoings. Put simply, they were afraid of David. I think if WCU in the most appropriate and non-damaging ways, should give the student body more knowledge into the status of the investigation. Many students have commented about the lackluster support WCU itself had, making me believe that the trust the students have in the university is poor when handling circumstances like these.”
Today, Dec. 5, a few students were in the lobby of administrative HFR building before the Board of Trustees meeting to make them aware of the students feelings of Rhode keeping his position.
Sarah DeArmon, the protest organizer, shared a post on Facebook in part saying, “We are protesting David Rhode’s position as SGA president and the results of the impeachment hearing and demanding his resignation.”
In an interview with DeArmon she said, “I don’t feel that David Rhode should be representing us as the student body.” She also had a message to SGA saying, “as they are representatives of the student body, I was hoping that the results of the meeting would reflect more on the views of the student body.”
WCJ will continue to update on future developments in SGA.
* Update: Shires reached out to WCJ to clarify a comment regarding the petition. The article has been updated to better represent Mr. Shire’s comment.
