The student senate at Clemson University has impeached its Vice President, shortly after he sat during the pledge of allegiance at a student government meeting.
Jaren Stewart has been impeached from his post as student government vice president over misconduct allegations just weeks after a meeting in which he refused to stand for the pledge of allegiance. Clemson’s student senators voted 40-18 to impeach Stewart on Monday while Stewart was out of town. An impeachment trial date has yet to be set. If successful, Stewart will be removed from office.
Stewart and several of his peers sat during the pledge of allegiance during a September 25 meeting of the Clemson student government. Although some feel that Stewart’s pledge protest led to the calls for his impeachment, student senator Miller tells a different story in the impeachment filing document.
In late April of this year, the Vice President was suddenly terminated from his position as a Resident Assistant. According to a document from Clemson Home, Termination of an RA can come from a few actions, namely “actions that no longer allow RA to be seen as a role model in the community” and “major violations of the Student Code of Conduct or Housing Contract” or a “violation of local, state, or federal law.” He was the Student Body Vice President at this time. Approximately three days later, an Incident Report was filed with the Urgency Level as “Critical.” The outcome of this event ended in the Student Body Vice President being charged with “Trespassing/Unlawful Entry”. This has since been confirmed by OCES.
On October 3rd, an article was released that leaked a copy of said document. The document contained highly charged allegations against the Vice President. The document was an Incident Reporting Form, which has been confirmed as authentic by the University. Among the accusations, theft, trespassing, strong-arming, intimidation, and sexual harassment bring valid concerns to the body and the office held. The report was made to Community Director Talley who later confirmed the complaint with the two female roommates involved.
Student Senator Miller Hoffmann hit back against claims that the impeachment procedure was initiated for either racial or political reasons. “Such a narrative is without evidence and completely untrue,” Hoffman said, who referred back to the allegations against Stewart that were revealed in the Incident Report document.
According to the Tiger Town Observer, an independent student newspaper associated with Clemson University, the Incident Report document detailed a complaint that involved Stewart behaving inappropriately with two of his female residents.
“The second allegation was that Stewart would enter the same room while the two female residents were changing clothes and would not remove himself from the room when asked to leave. The document suggests that this was also a recurring event,” the report reads.