Senate Boots Byrne
BY ALYSON DAME

While sophomore John Byrne was home celebrating Easter with his family, Student Senate voted to remove him. The decision took Senate nearly two hours to make, Byrne’s repeated absences at meetings was the major concern.
“Senate voted to remove me two Sundays past. Frankly, I was incredulous. They removed me while I was at home during a religious holiday, celebrating Easter Sunday with my family,” Byrne said, adding, “In a sense, I can understand why they did what they did.”
This unusual event was a legal, if drastic measure as laied out in Senate bylaws. “We had a very long discussion about it, there were a whole lot of points brought up on both sides,” senior Senator Neil Gray said. 
Assistant Dean of Students Bill Stackman was present during the meeting. “This is consistent with their bylaws. They have the right and the duty to remove them,” he said. Senior Jane Glynn, a former senator, could not remember any senator removals in her time at Oberlin.

Byrne was the organizational coordinator, and so he sat in on Student Finance Committee hearings which are happening currently. Gray was one of two senators who voted not to remove Byrne. “One of the points that I made is that it would be hard to remove the organizational coordinator during the SFC hearings,” Gray said. 
Junior senator April Wynn will take over Byrne’s duties as organizational coordinator, but there will not be another Senator added to replace Byrne. “There are only two weeks left,” Stackman said.
“I think he’s missed three plenary sessions in the last five,” Gray said. Byrne did not deny his absences, but said that his removal was unfair and came without warning. “One senator lied and said that she had told me if I wasn’t in attendance at that meeting they would consider my removal. And they were given bogus facts that I’m surprised they even believed. For example, a charter was said to have been in the office for weeks without being discussed when in fact that entire Senate had voted to pass the charter weeks before and it was on the table for last Tuesday’s GF meeting,” Byrne said.
Gray agreed that a warning might have been a more reasonable course of action. “Another point that was made that I would agree with is that it would seem appropriate to censure someone before removing them,” he said.
Despite dissatisfaction with the decision, Byrne did not plan to seek reinstatement. “I don’t want to work with people who aren’t going to work with me, and I’ve been convinced that Senate is neither working toward nor deserves legitmacy,” Byrne said.
During his time in office, Byrne had become somewhat cynical about the role of Senate. “Senate concerns itself with perfunctory measures, like voting on whether to buy a new computer for the office. Senate is mortgaging their future by alienating their constituency,” Byrne said, adding that decisions “are fueled by personal animosity rather than a desire to work to augment the general student welfare, there’s no point in working with them.”