Wednesday, the Undergraduate Government of Boston College Senate voted to amend the UGBC constitution with a clause precluding Senate members from sitting on the editorial board of or working as staff writers for a campus newspaper. Earlier in the evening, the Senate attempted censure to Rafael Leonardo, CSOM '11, for allegedly leaking information to The Observer.
Sean Scanlon, A&S '08 and member of the Senate, made the motion to censure Leonardo. "My actions have nothing to do with what was printed in The Observer," Scanlon said. "What I don't want to have is our fellow members of the Senate being betrayed week after week." Scanlon was not only upset with the fact that a member of the Senate had provided The Observer with the roll call of the vote on the Women's Leadership Council during an Oct. 24 Senate meeting, but also with an off-color comment made by Garrett Cockren, Senate member and CSOM '09, outside of the presence of a reporter.
The Women's Leadership Council failed to garner enough votes in the Senate to be chartered as an autonomous body funded by UGBC, similar to the AHANA Leadership Council or the GLBTQ Leadership Council. The Observer lambasted the six members of the Senate who abstained from a vote, saying that they were more concerned with reelection than the issues at hand, also calling them cowards. In fact, four members of the Senate were members of the Class of 2011 and chose to abstain because they did not feel that they had enough knowledge to make an informed decision.
The Observer published a piece accusing the Senate of being a clandestine organization, citing Cockren's remarks made after a meeting, only in the presence of other members of the Senate - printing that Cockren was going to "'hunt' down whoever was 'leaking' information" at Senate meetings. Cockren said he intentionally made his remarks to see if there was a leak. He also stated that he was misquoted.
"I believe [the leaking] infringes on the integrity of the Senate," Scanlon said.
2008 Woodie Awards
