Last night, April 4, at approximately 9:50 p.m., now former Northern Iowa Student Government (NISG) Director of Governmental Relations Maggie Miller walked out of the Senate Chamber after Executive Order (EO) 2018-29 passed by a vote of 15-2-0, adopting the motion to remove Miller from office.

EO 29, as presented by NISG President Jamal White, cited three primary reasons for recommending the removal of Miller from office:

“That Ms. Miller has displayed an outrageous abuse of power and has failed to serve as a positive and supportive role model within her role as Director of Governmental Relations.

“That Ms. Miller has used her role to manipulate and depower other students, creating a negative rhetoric at the capitol about other students within NISG to legislators.

“That Ms. Miller has managed to devalue and diminish the character and work of other NISG members and students of UNI at large.”

Miller and White were both given time to speak about the claims put forward in the order.

“Voting me out today will harm UNI, not only this year, but for future years to come, on how we trust this position,” Miller said before Wednesday’s vote. “I am so sorry for anybody in this room that I have hurt, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart, but I did not do it maliciously or with cruel intent.”

“Maggie has been known to lie profusely in a lot of situations and cases,” White said in response to Miller’s statement. “So, I’m not even sure how much of this to believe.”

The move to adopt the motion came after EO 2018-28 was ruled unconstitutional by the NISG Supreme Court. White vetoed EO 28 in order to untangle the process of impeachment from the process of removal, as previously passed by the Senate.

After numerous options were discussed in the Senate, EO 28 was fully rescinded and EO 29 was proposed.

An email was submitted by White as evidence of unprofessional conduct on the part of Miller.

“Your selfishness overwhelms me. You are not a good representative of this University and the values of it,” Miller said in the email to an undisclosed student.

“I do push people hard, but it’s to yield success,” Miller said. “I pushed one member of my Legislative Liaison Team [LLT] very hard this year, and he’s going to pass a bill. And that wouldn’t have happened if we just let people deal with mediocrity because we are all great students, and sometimes you need to be pushed.”

“The first thing I want to address is the fact that none of you are mediocre,” White said. “Second, […] the work that you deliver does not excuse bad behavior. I don’t care how good it is — never, in any instance. Bad behavior overshadows anything you will ever do, ever, in your life.”

“When there is student money being used, we shouldn’t settle for mediocrity, we should push for the best,” Miller said.

The Senate then went into open caucus, where the senators discussed examples of alleged behavior on the part of Miller.

According to Senator Conner McMillen, many conversations he had with students had made clear that there is a negative image of NISG present on campus. The students reportedly cited Miller as one factor contributing to the negativity.

“Maggie never made me feel welcome as a senator or on the [LLT],” Senator Jacob Levang said.

Levang also made clear that Miller was not forgiving in her decision-making regarding the LLT. He spoke about one instance of an LLT member being removed from the team.

“The expectations were never clearly set, and I think he was doomed to fail from the beginning,” Levang said. “One slip-up ending up pushing him off the team.”

Speaker of the Senate Drew Stensland noted that action taken on EO 29 sets a precedent for the future of NISG.

“[The passage of this EO] is saying that, ‘If you act like this, you can be removed,’ Stensland said. “This is setting that precedent.”

Senator Nathan Salts commented on the jump between discussion and removal.

“I think there should have been intermediate steps between talking to her and kicking her out,” Salts said.

Stensland closed last night’s caucus by stressing each senator’s role as a representative of the student body, saying, “How we move forward after this moment is what we will really be judged on.”