While Student Body Treasurer Paul Drayton may be out of state, he is certainly not out of mind.
During Tuesday's Student Senate meeting, senators discussed an e-mail sent to the body Friday that called for Drayton's impeachment after he accepted a summer internship in New York with JPMorgan Chase.
The e-mail was sent by Christian Duque, a UF alumnus and former senator. Duque accused Drayton of abandoning Student Government when he accepted the internship.
Gator Party Sen. Naadira Renfroe denied the allegations in a prepared address.
In the e-mail, Duque wrote that Drayton was being paid for his SG position while interning this summer.
Renfroe said Drayton has not received a paycheck since May 9 because he has not kept office hours.
Drayton later addressed the Senate from a cell phone that was held to a microphone by Kellie Dale, Senate president. He assured the senators he was fulfilling his duties by calling during the lunch break of his 10-hour work day to check in with his chief financial officer, Rene Medina.
"Is this abandonment, and am I slapping students in the face? I don't think so," Drayton said.
Drayton said in a telephone interview that his speech was not directed at Duque's e-mail but was necessary to quell recent rumors that he could not perform his duty in New York. He said he is about to complete the 2009-2010 SG budget, something not completed until July in years past.
"More stuff is getting done in the treasurer's office in the summer than ever - period," he said.
Dale said in a telephone interview that there are no founded arguments for Drayton's impeachment.
Orange and Blue Party Sen. Sam Miorelli said he was confused as to why the issue had been discussed when the author was no longer a senator or a UF student.
"I think that it is unfortunate that Sen. Renfroe and Treasurer Drayton felt it was necessary to go into basically what I felt were rants over an e-mail," Miorelli said.
In other news, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution extending its support to flood victims at the University of Iowa.
"The entire university is basically underwater right now," said Orange and Blue Party Sen. Eric Wolf, who was a sponsor of the bill and has family attending the university.
