Congress committee keeps eye on ethics

This is the first installment of a series profiling the four committees of UNC’s Student Congress.

The Student Congress Ethics Committee hopes to meet rarely this semester.

But if a conflict within the legislative body arises that demands their attention, leaders of the group say they will come together to address it.

The Ethics Committee is one of four standing committees within Student Congress. It is primarily in charge of ensuring that representatives aren’t violating any of the provisions in the University’s Student Code, which sets forth the responsibilities and regulations of student government.

Brittany Clark, chairwoman of the committee, said common ethics violations include members of Student Congress repeatedly missing meetings without notification and instances when a complaint is lodged against a specific representative.

She said meetings are called when a violation arises, and there have been fewer complaints this year than the previous session.

“In the past, people would get heated and make personal attacks on each other, but people have been good about not doing that this year, which surprised me but it’s been nice,” Clark said.

If Student Congress votes that a violation was committed, the punishment ranges from censure to impeachment.

The committee is made up of five voting members who are all also members of other committees.

Laura Tollini, a member of the Ethics Committee, said she feels members of congress have been professional.

“As long as people continue down that path there shouldn’t be any further violations, but you can’t predict what people will do,” she said.

Last semester, the Ethics Committee censured two members of Congress — including current Speaker of Student Congress Connor Brady for distributing e-mails regarding other congress members’ stances on funding for the Tar Heel Rifle and Pistol Club, and former speaker Paige Comparato for an unrelated matter.

Brady is now a non-voting member of the committee.

He said being censured didn’t make him regret releasing the e-mail, but did make him reassess relationships he built with members of Congress who intended to target individual organizations.

Peter McClelland, a member of the ethics committee and president of the College Republicans, accused Congress of having a liberal bias earlier this year when his group’s budget request was cut by $5,090.

Clark, however, said the accusations of bias are ill-founded. She said the College Republicans didn’t get their request cut by more than any other organization.

“I honestly think it was more of a perception issue than a reality,” she said.

Brady said the College Republicans have since raised enough money to pay for their speakers through fundraising. He said he doesn’t think the ethics committee will need to take up accusations of bias against the group.

“I don’t think that was an issue of ethics, I think that Student Congress has a budget just like anyone else does — student organization funding is cut all the time,” he said.

Clark and Brady both said McClelland’s seat on the ethics committee in light of his accusation of bias is not an issue.

Clark said the committee is in charge of maintaining a list of the political organizations representatives are involved with outside of Student Government so that they can abstain from voting if their club is involved.

Brady said he does not think the Ethics Committee needs any set goals because it should only plan to investigate if circumstances warrant it.

“If the committee ensures that members of Student Congress are behaving themselves as well as advocating for students the way they’re supposed to, their goals are set for the year.”

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