By Vince Gasparini | October 7, 2023
Members of the University at Albany Student Association Senate received their committee assignments at Wednesday night’s (10/2) meeting, and while most of them were approved with little debate, Senate Chair Ethan Madappatt was questioned for leaving Senator Marcos Perez off of the Ethics Committee.
Madappatt (left) and Perez (right) shake hands following Wednesday night’s meeting.
Photo Credit: Vince Gasparini / The ASP
All committee assignments are chosen by the Senate Chair and Vice Chair, who interview the candidates for the committees based on each Senator’s preference. The Ethics Committee, which Perez served on last semester, was first on his list, but he was instead assigned to the Community Engagement and Outreach Committee, which was his fifth choice out of seven committees.
The Ethics Committee, according to SA’s website, “vigilantly safeguards our shared values, promoting accountability and ethical conduct across all SA activities.”
Madappatt, after being questioned by President Jalen Rose about Perez’s absence from the committee, said that Perez was left off of it because, when asked if he would be “neutral or impartial,” as a member of the Ethics Committee, he responded saying he would be “wise.”
“Seeing that he has put something above impartiality, something above neutrality, something that ethics really needs to function, I was definitely taken aback,” Madappatt told Senators at Wednesday night’s meeting.
Perez clarified the statement for Senators, explaining, “The quote that I did say was ‘Serving in ethics isn’t just about neutrality and being unbiased; it transcends that into wisdom.’”
“And just to clarify what that means,” he continued, “because this is something that I did state while I was standing here during my Vice Chair opening statement, is we all have a duty to go far and beyond just being accountable to each other, far and beyond just being fair with one another. We have to understand that everything that happens is within context, and so neutrality and being unbiased is the standard. We have to go far and beyond that.”
Perez was defended by Rose and Vice President Amelia Crawford, along with multiple Senators, who argued that he had served well as a member of the Ethics Committee last semester and that there had been no incidents that called into question his neutrality.
“We’re raising a standard for somebody who has been on the Ethics Committee and has proved to be able to do this, and it’s a higher standard for them than it is for people who have never been on the committee,” Crawford said. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Rose told the ASP that he disagrees with the decision to leave Perez off the Ethics Committee because he has done nothing that “has been proven to be unethical.”
“I think the Chair made a very biased decision in not putting Marcos on the Ethics Committee,” Rose said. “There are not even reports of Marcos doing anything unethical, anything illegal, anything partial, anything breaking confidentiality. There’s no proof of that at all.”
A vote by the Senate to appeal Madappatt’s appointment decisions and add Perez to the Ethics Committee failed as it did not reach a two-thirds majority.
“I think he didn’t completely mean what he said to myself and [Vice Chair] Sidney Wheeler,” Madappatt told the ASP. “But other than that, the Senate body voted how they felt. They did not vote to overturn my decision, so I stand with the Senate’s decision on that.”
In a statement to the ASP, Perez said, “The one principle remains true, and this was true during all of my interactions that I’ve had in the Student Association, whether it be lawsuits or investigations or whatnot, which is: the institution prevails.”
He added that he looks forward to continuing to work with Madappatt and Wheeler.
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