DASB: senators criticized for unprofessional messages; vote ‘no confidence’ in state chancellor

*Editor’s note: La Voz has removed the names of the three senators implicated by Brandi Madison.

A DASB senator on Wednesday, June 6 denounced the senate president and three other senators for sending unprofessional material and profanity through a DASB senate business group chat. The senate also unanimously approved a resolution of no confidence in the current chancellor of California Community Colleges, Eloy Ortiz Oakley, presented by the Academic Senate.

Brandi Madison, 47, environmental science major, implicated the DASB president, two senate chairs and one senator, in alleged misuse of the group chat that is supposed to be “used for business,” according to Madison. “It is not used to talk about sexually explicit things.”

Chat content included talks about penis size, a photo of half naked man and the use of profanities, according to screenshots of the group chat.

In an email to the senate, DASB senate adviser Hyon Chu Yi-Baker wrote that while she understood the social nature of the Facebook group chat, “as long as it is treated as an extension of DASB… this is considered a violation of our code of conduct, bylaws, campus policies and even state and federal laws.”

President Khaled Haq, 18, business major said there is currently no online senate code of conduct in place and the senate group chat was seen as a more casual rather than a professional interface. The senate vacated the group chat, and will move to an email based interface, Haq said.

Former Foothill-De Anza Student Trustee Elias Kamal, 20, political science major, urged the senate to initiate a no confidence vote against Haq.

“It’s honestly very disappointing to see the lack of professionalism, the lack of social consciousness in equity and the immaturity.” The position of the DASB senate right now is more important than it has been in the past few years, Kamal said. “Keep each other accountable,” he said. “I highly encourage you guys to have a vote of no confidence for your DASB president.”

In an interview with La Voz, Haq said he has followed all the requirements the president was sworn in to fulfill. In response to the criticisms of his presidency, Haq said he thinks it’s all just drama. “A no confidence vote,” he said. “I think that’s quite silly.”

The senate also unanimously approved a Resolution of No Confidence towards Chancellor Eloy Oakley from the Academic senate. “Our current chancellor has not been in real consultation with faculty about issues of concern to us,” said political science professor and Vice-president of the Academic senate Jim Nguyen who presented the resolution to the senate.

Some concerns Nguyen said faculties have is the proposal to spend $120 million to create a fully online community college and a budget proposal to move community colleges towards performance-based funding formula.

“We’ve expressed these concerns with the chancellor,” he said. “The chancellor basically doesn’t listen to us.” The senate approved the resolution 21-0 unanimously.