Impeached International Student Union president was reinstated after his appeal to the general board.
Phally Chroy is still the president of the International Student Union after winning the appeal of his impeachment Monday night.
This comes after a letter filed Dec. 8 which listed criticisms of Chroy’s presidency. He was then impeached Dec. 12 after an unanimous decision by the organization’s disciplinary committee.
Ohio University’s ISU is an umbrella organization for 30 international organizations on campus — representatives from 20 of those organizations attended the meeting and voted on the appeal.
It was tense in the board room where executive members and general board members were present as 13 votes were announced to reverse the disciplinary committee and keep Chroy as president. Two votes were in favor to remove Chroy and five organizations abstained from voting.
Voting came after Chroy’s 15-minute statement accusing ISU’s executive board of corruption and showing favoritism toward certain organizations in terms of funding.
“ISU is not corrupt as long as I am president. They have the potential to be corrupt, but not while I’m here,” Chroy said.
Chroy said he appealed the impeachment decision because ISU advisor, Krista McCallum-Beatty, didn’t vote in the process as she should have. Chroy cited the ISU constitution, reasoning that an advisor is part of the disciplinary committee and therefore should vote.
"She did not vote, and therefore the decision was not unanimous, and therefore I'm still president," Chroy said.
McCallum-Beatty said she is an advisor, not a student, and deemed her lack of vote during the impeachment process appropriate.
Each year, ISU receives $100,000 in total funding and distributes approximately $2,100 to other student organizations, according to Chroy’s presentation. Any international organization that wishes to receive funding must submit and have a budget proposal approved by the executive board.
Chroy said some organizations had “dodgy budgets” every year and accused the African Student Union, which he said made a budget request of $12,000 for this year.
“ASU was $2,000 in the hole after an event they had in the fall,” said Nick Brumfield, a senior and programming coordinator of ISU. He added that by adding money to the ASU’s budget, ISU could alleviate that financial issue.
Chroy also accused the executive members of attempting to give their $250 homecoming parade prize money they received to the Ebola campaign sponsored by ASU to appease them after some conflict.
“I’m always about the constitution and checking the figures first. ASU tried to receive funding from the Student Appropriation Committee, which is not allowed,” Chroy said. “They tried to pass an emergency budget request for money.”
Before the vote, a general board member asked how the executive members intend to work with Chroy if he is reinstated as president.
“Some executive members may stay or may leave,” said Olivia Raney, ISU marketing and public relations director. Raney is also a former Post photo editor.
Chroy said his responsibility is to do his job as president, and expects other executive members to do the same.
“It’s all about money, it’s all about friends on the board,” Chroy said. “Rules are being made as they go along.”
@mini_fezz
Mf736213@ohio.edu
