Student Government senators postponed the creation of a committee to investigate the Boreing-Becerra campaign during the Oct. 1 Student Government meeting.
Sens. Claudia Gasponi and Preston Nieves authored the piece of legislation following allegations made by former Sen. Elijah Miller. Miller alleged that former Student Government President Brooklyn Boreing and her campaign took $2,800 and 25 iPads from Turning Point USA during the election season. Boreing resigned a week after the allegations were made and Vice President Ruben Becerra Jr. was sworn in as president shortly after.
Sen. Gasponi relayed the message of the legislation to the senators before they began discussion and debate.
“Most importantly, [we want] to prevent something like this from happening again,” Gasponi said. “TPUSA has a history of doing shady things, not just in our student government but student governments across the country.”
Soon after, Sen. Kelly Torpey read an amendment she created with a senator she would not name. The amendment included letting Vice President Alison Castillo, choose who would stand on the committee. It also placed a 30-day limit on the investigation.
Gasponi said the proposed amendment would alter the nature of the legislation, despite Sen. Torpey’s belief the original legislation is unconstitutional. Torpey said the constitution stated the vice president has the ability to select which senators would sit on the committee. In Gasponi and Nieves’ legislation, they proposed to make the senators in charge of choosing who would stand on the committee under the belief it would be a conflict of interest because Castillo was involved in the Boreing-Becerra campaign.
Senators voted to postpone both the amendment and the legislation after a heated debate. The legislation will be voted on Oct. 8 at the next Student Government meeting.
Before senators began voting on the legislation, Becerra said he hoped they would vote yes and create the committee to give a resolution to the student body.
“I want to say that I fully support this committee,” Becerra said. “I know this is not personally on me, but this is what the student body needs and the Senate needs.”
During the public forum, Hunter Rollins, public administration junior and College Democrat member, said the senators should pass the legislation and create the committee.
“I’m not going to lay out the facts, but I will lay out a plea for you,” Rollins said. “You are representatives of 40,000 students. I can tell you that every time it gets brought up in a class or anyone that I know asks me about it and does not know about it or does not have knowledge about it they want to see this investigation. When you tell them about it they want to know.”
The University Star will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.