ASUCSD Votes to Impeach Transfer Senator Joseph Giltner

Associated Students of UC San Diego (ASUCSD) Senate voted unanimously to impeach Transfer Senator and former AS presidential candidate Joseph Giltner on April 17, through a resolution sponsored by AS President Kiara Gomez.

As set by the AS constitution, the ruling will now move on to the AS Judicial Board, who will convene to confirm the impeachment. After Judicial Board confirms the impeachment, Giltner will be removed both from his position and the committees he sits on.

The AS Elections Committee recommended impeachment to ASUCSD after they determined that Giltner had abused his senator position to get an unfair advantage during election season. The committee made the recommendation following review of a grievance filed by AS President-elect and current Muir College Senator Eleanor Grudin.

According to the grievance, Giltner reserved a tabling space for April 1 on Library Walk for the expressed purpose of “AS Senator Flyering.” He made the reservation before March 8, the date AS presidential candidates were allowed to begin reserving tabling spaces. On April 1, Tritons United, Giltner’s slate, used the table to promote the slate’s campaign.

“Use of ASUCSD offices, services, enterprises, physical resources, equipment, or title to campaign is prohibited,” says the ASUCSD Elections Code. “Any individual with a position in ASUCSD may be impeached or removed from office if found guilty of violating this rule or helping a candidate or slate violate this rule.”

Since Giltner had used his senatorial privileges to secure a space for his slate prior to the allowed date of March 8, the Elections Committee referred him to the AS President for impeachment.

In an interview with The Triton on April 11, Giltner claimed that he reserved the tabling space for an event he was planning to assist transfer students with their taxes. This did not come to fruition after Giltner decided to run for AS President and the event was cancelled a week before spring break. The following week, Giltner says he had to reserve tables for AS flyering and made a reservation for Thursday.

“I think what happened is that Nancy who works at One Stop… just saw that it was the same name and just added Tritons United to it but I don’t know why it was not cancelled,” Giltner told The Triton during the interview.

Giltner emailed a resignation letter over the AS listserv shortly before the senate meeting where they would vote on his impeachment. His letter stated that his resignation would become effective after unfinished business, which is before the impeachment vote on the agenda. As a result, Gomez said they reordered the agenda to vote on the resolution before his resignation went into effect.

Gomez told The Triton that she gave Giltner the opportunity to resign before April 10 to not be impeached.

“I sit as the only Undergrad Representative on the Transfer Student Workgroup, and we were attempting to meet during Week 3 and so I was not going to neglect my job and not have any undergraduate representation on such an important Workgroup,” Giltner said in response to Gomez’s comment about his resignation.

Transfer Senators are responsible for representing the transfer student population, which is approximately one-third of the undergraduate student body, according to Giltner. They are also responsible for sitting on the All-Campus Transfer Association to improve the transfer experience.

Gomez confirmed that an interim Transfer Senator will be appointed to the position so that transfer students remain represented in accordance with AS bylaws. The interim Transfer Senator will hold their position until Week 8, when newly-elected Transfer Senator Yusuf Hamid Altimimi terms in.

Samir Nomani is a Staff Writer for The Triton.