SGA grants Sen. Patel undergraduate status

The Student Government Association (SGA) granted Senior Class Senator Parth Patel undergraduate status to avoid impeaching him in their meeting on Tuesday.

Former Junior Class Senator Mahzi Malcolm filed a complaint with the SGA Judiciary about the nature of Patel’s appointment, bringing into question his status as an undergraduate student. Patel is in a BA/MA five-year Master’s program, and he will receive both degrees upon graduation.

The SGA is entitled to grant undergraduate status under its Bill of Rights, which states, “All persons enrolled as undergraduates in the Homewood Divisions of the School of Arts and Sciences and the G.W.C. Whiting School of Engineering have equal rights as students under this Constitution, as do persons who may be extended such status by the Student Government Association.”

At the SGA meeting, all members present prepared to make a decision about Patel’s future as a representative. Senior Class President Destiny Bailey had, along with the entire senior SGA class, crafted a statement in defense of Patel’s undergraduate status, wishing for him to remain a part of the undergraduate SGA.

“Parth is in a dual-enrollment Master’s program. [However], undergraduate status is not defined in our constitution. Considering Parth a full-time Homewood student, we would extend him undergraduate status as a student. Parth has served as a loyal member of SGA,” Bailey said.

Bailey emphasized her goal of defining Patel’s role in SGA as a positive one.

Pepe Muniz, a freshman class senator, appeared to disagree with the crux of Bailey’s statement.

“The bill is not about us keeping Parth or not,” Muniz said. “It’s about, is he an undergraduate or not. It should be about Parth as an undergraduate, not about [the reasons why] we’re deciding to keep him.”

Muniz further stated that he was in support of the bill because he does consider Patel an undergraduate student. Sophomore Class Senator Nick McCormack explained that to his knowledge a dilemma of this sort has never occurred before in the undergraduate SGA.

“I feel like in this unique situation, context is very important,” McCormack said.

Destiny Bailey responded to both Muniz and McCormack’s statements by explaining her views on the nature of the decision, the bill itself and the unprecedented nature of the situation.

“We’re not defining undergraduate status to fit [Parth],” Bailey said. “The undergraduate status is called into question in general. When we do go back [and look at this decision], it would be like this is setting a precedent, and we want to be careful that the full story is being included in the resolution. This does seem like an exception, but if you see this in a holistic way, I’d be looking for a reason as to why [we granted him undergraduate status].”

Junior Class President Jahan Mirchandani expressed his uncertainty about this issue and focused on Patel’s relative activeness as a class senator as a reason to keep him.

“This has never happened before. It’s really just a matter of if Parth was an active member [of SGA] or not,” Mirchandani said.

The motion was made to suspend the rules of the SGA in order to vote on Parth’s status within that same meeting rather than waiting a week to vote. Bailey and Kyra Toomre, SGA’s executive vice president, explained that suspending the rules is equated to suspending the usual parliamentary process of the SGA, and not in any way suspending the SGA constitution.

SGA parliamentary rules require such decisions to be made in two parts, according to Bailey. One meeting is used for discussion of the issue at hand, and in the next week’s meeting, the council votes on the issue. This process was skipped in order to both discuss and vote on Patel’s possible impeachment within the same day.

“[This is] not against our constitution,” Bailey explained. “Extending this status to any one person is part of the constitution. Because some might feel that [Patel’s] undergraduate status is unclear, this was a backup to make sure we’re covering all of our bases.”

Toomre added that if granting Patel undergraduate status and allowing him to stay on SGA was in fact against the constitution, the SGA would not be allowed to make that decision. Toomre noted that the unclear nature of the current constitution has inspired the SGA to consider future changes.

“Nothing would be ‘against the constitution.’ If it was, we would not be able to do it, as it is the document that gives the SGA power and rights to represent the student body,” Toomre wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “Our constitution is not clear and that is part of why we are in the process of drafting a new constitution to be reviewed and voted on by the student body, and then hopefully implemented.”

After their discussion, the entire SGA voted on the issue of Patel’s undergraduate status. Junior Class Senator Kanami Mori motioned to have a closed vote, but that idea was shut down. Instead, members said “yes” or “no” aloud to cast their votes.

Every member of the Hopkins undergraduate SGA voted “yes,” and Patel was granted undergraduate status, thereby allowing him to remain a part of the undergraduate SGA. He was not formally impeached.

Freshman Class Senator Kwame Alston expressed his opinion on the decision, stating it was a testament to how well members of the SGA can work together to make a decision.

“[This decision] shows the willingness of the organization to work together,” Alston said. “However, we need to be more specific about who we consider an undergraduate as opposed to a graduate. We need to be proactive about this type of issue in the future.”

When asked about the timeline of the issue, Patel explained that he did look into his undergraduate status after the complaint had been filed against him, and had shared the results of those inquires with the SGA before the Tuesday meeting.

“Many people in SGA knew that I was going to start my Master’s courses this semester,” Patel wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “The main reason [for sharing this], however, was that I was just as surprised as everyone else when my status changed on ISIS. I had talked to many people in the Registrar’s Office and I was under the impression that I was still going to be listed as an undergraduate due to issues with my tuition. To be honest, I didn’t know [my status] changed until Mahzi pointed it out.”