On March 26, an anonymous petition was filed on WUGO calling for the removal of Student Union Speaker of the Senate Sonal Churiwal. Churiwal was accused of, among other things, breaking two SU conditional provisions regarding the ability for the Speaker to comment on active debates.

The petition was filed shortly after SU voted in favor of a resolution Churiwal co-sponsored, which called on the University to divest from Boeing. Because of this, Churiwal said that the petition was politically motivated. The petition garnered the required 5% of signatures from the student body, and a recall election will take place on April 9. A majority of voters would need to vote in favor of recall to remove Churiwal from office. 

As we approach this upcoming vote, the Student Life Editorial Board expresses concerns over the petition’s anonymous filing and resulting potential for the exploitation of the recall process.

The merits of the petition aside, we believe that anonymity should not have been an option for this petition. As we alluded to in our last staff editorial, anonymity in the political process fuels political divisiveness, limits future dialogue, and erodes accountability. 

Anonymous petitions can lead to misdirected scrutiny or persecution of individuals rather than uprooting corruption and problematic behavior. It is difficult for voters to accurately verify the claims made in this petition because its anonymity makes any attempt to follow up on these accusations nearly impossible. This petition asks individuals uninformed about this situation — which regards events that took place in SU meetings, settings in which the vast majority of the student body are not involved — to decide on something they likely know little about. In turn, voters may be pushed to rely on their political motivations instead of evaluating the merits of the petition. 

This is not to say that the petition is purely speculatory, and if all of these allegations can be confirmed, we ought to consider removal. Constituents being able to hold elected officials accountable is an essential part of the democratic political process. However, without any ability to verify these claims, there is no way to distinguish between a politically motivated campaign and an honest attempt to improve SU. Without anonymity and with more comprehensive evidence, we might feel differently, but for now, this petition is riddled with skepticism.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated on April 3rd, 2024 to fix a grammatical error.

Staff editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of our editorial board members. The editorial board operates independently of our newsroom and includes members of the senior staff.

Jared Adelman, Managing Multimedia Editor*

Alan Knight, Multimedia Editor

Nina Giraldo, Editor-in-Chief

Clara Richards, Editor-in-Chief*

Reilly Brady, Managing Forum Editor*

Sylvie Richards, Managing Forum Editor

Jasmine Stone, Senior Forum Editor

Amelia Raden, Senior Forum Editor

Jordan Spector, Senior Forum Editor

Dion Hines, Junior Forum Editor

David Ciorba, Junior Forum Editor

Lewis Rand, Junior Sports Editor

Zara Shariff, Senior Scene Editor

Will Rosenblum, Senior Scene Editor

*This editorial board meeting was conducted before our April 1 editor turnover. Asterisks indicate that these titles became former positions after April 1.