student government bylaws<\/a> for removal, the vote to remove Marquez failed since it didn\u2019t meet the 3 \/4 majority rule.<\/p>\nReanna Carlson, ASG vice president, said a student in the group chat brought the comments to their attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a message within a work group chat full of students who are in student activities,\u201d Carlson said. \u201cThe message was inappropriate and raised concerns for the student body.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carlson declined to repeat the exact words of the comment, saying it should come directly from Marquez. \u201cI think it\u2019s his place to be transparent with the students,\u201d Carlson said.<\/p>\n
Marquez, who was at the center of the impeachment discussion, declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Carlson said ASG members were \u201ctaken aback\u201d when they first learned of the message and started to discuss whether the comments violated student government bylaws.<\/p>\n
Carlson said Marquez knew the impeachment was being considered.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was aware of it because he had spoken to Dr. Martinez [advisor for ASG] about the statement and that there was a probability of him or a possibility of him being impeached,\u201d Carlson said.<\/p>\n
Some members argued that Marquez had acknowledged his mistakes and deserved a second chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do agree that he said something he shouldn\u2019t have said, but he apologized for it,\u201d Aidan Pe\u00f1a, ASG Treasurer said. \u201cIt takes a bit of heart to apologize, so we should consider that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Natalia Montelongo emphasized the seriousness of what was said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said something full of hatred, full of bigotry and full of racism,\u201d Montelongo said. \u201cEspecially with how the world is right now, that is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
But not everyone agreed. Inter Council Chair Gurbhagat Singh Bains said Marquez should be given another chance since he apologized for what he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do agree that he said something he shouldn\u2019t have said, but he apologized not once but twice,\u201d Bains said.<\/p>\n
Sen. Esmeralda Garcia Lopez stressed the importance of keeping each other accountable in order to keep building trust with students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how we can maintain and build that trust, when we have people in this room that say things like that,\u201d Garcia Lopez said.<\/p>\n
Sen. Gabriel Escheveste argued Marquez is sincere and should be forgiven.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not trying to justify what Rodney said, I felt like he kind of took it to heart,\u201d Escheveste said. \u201cBecause at the meeting over there, he gave an apology, and it seemed more orchestrated, like he truly prepared for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carlson said events like this could damage ASG\u2019s reputation when they should be representing the students.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will create distrust between the student body and ASG,\u201d Carlson said<\/p>\n
Sen. Jeremiah Sanchez said that the students\u2019 trust should\u2019ve been considered in the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are the voice of the students, so regardless of how we feel personally about a person or a topic, the only thing that matters is how the student body would want us to represent them,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n
Carlson said the current political climate made this issue sensitive to handle. And the vote should\u2019ve considered the context if this were something said towards a student.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we do have to understand the tumultuous times we\u2019re in,\u201d Carlson said. \u201cIf this was a joke toward a student, that would be extremely unacceptable and we need to eliminate that possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Grace Boone who voted against the impeachment said that Marquez apologized for his mistakes and should be forgiven.<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree that what he said is not acceptable,\u201d Boone said. \u201cBut the fact that he was able to recognize what was wrong about what he said, meant something to me personally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carlson said this situation has highlighted the importance of accountability within ASG and for the council to prioritize the interest of the students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it has taught ASG that we need to put students first,\u201d Carlson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresno City College\u2019s Associated Student Government (ASG) narrowly rejected an effort to impeach Sen. Rodney Marquez for making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-217156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}