The New School University Student Senate’s (USS) Co-Vice Chair of Advocacy, Kartik Gupta, was notified on April 11 that a petition for his impeachment was approved and that a hearing would be set up soon. Gupta officially resigned on April 17 before the hearing could be scheduled. Gupta said the impeachment petition containing inconsistencies regarding constitutional clauses was a contributing factor for his resignation.
The impeachment petition charged Gupta with several counts of misconduct stating that he “Fail[ed] to uphold the duties and responsibilities of their office as a representative of our university in the University Student Senate,” citing a “consistent disregard for the principles of honesty, integrity, and ethical behavior,” and other details regarding Gupta’s time within the senate.
“I don’t think they have respect for the Constitution. There doesn’t ever need to be fear for a document that is supposed to protect the community,” Gupta said.
In the impeachment process outline included in the petition addressed to Gupta, the tenth clause states that, “If an impeached Senator receives a conviction, the individual shall be removed from office and relieved of all USS-related duties immediately. They may not run for a USS Executive or General Board position the following year.”
The clauses mentioned in the USS impeachment petition letter are misnumbered and do not align with the clauses stated in the constitution. Under the USS constitution’s impeachment section, there is no “tenth” clause. Instead the impeachment petition refers to the seventh clause under Section 2(c) of the Impeachment section in the constitution.
under the USS constitution
Additionally, the petition included a clause regarding future elections. The added sentence, “They may not run for a USS Executive or General Board position the following year,” refutes Gupta’s eligibility to run for any USS positions in the following year. This part of clause ten is not mentioned in the USS constitution.
Along with the added and misnumbered clauses, Gupta said he was not provided with any evidence supporting the impeachment charges against him. According to the impeachment section in the USS constitution, an impeached senator must be provided with “all evidence supporting the impeachment charges,” upon the presentation of an impeachment petition. In an email sent to Gupta, USS Head Chair, Shivam Sachdeva, said “[Evidence material] comes after the senator has been charged and before the hearing, we are now in that window.” Gupta refuted the petition in an email sent to Sachdeva.
In a statement issued to The Free Press, Sachdeva said, “As we were in discussions over this [impeachment] process, the senator in question resigned from their position. The impeachment hearing was therefore rendered unnecessary … the senate takes seriously its duty to offer impartial judgment to ensure we are abiding by our constitution and bylaws that govern this body.” Sachdeva was not available for an interview and instead provided a statement.
USS advisor Andrade Fearon, Director of SLI, provided a statement on behalf of the USS that states “the hearing is in keeping with the rules outlined in the University Student Senate’s Constitution. This is a serious proceeding and the senate takes seriously its duty to offer impartial judgment to ensure a fair hearing.”
Gupta will be finishing the rest of the semester focusing on finals and his mental health, “I think if I just simply resigned, I could just focus on working and everyone could focus on doing [their] jobs. And the Senate can do whatever.”
At the time of publication, The New School’s University Student Senate had not updated their constitution to factually reflect all clauses stated in the Impeachment Petition letter.