Student body president Suryakanth Prasad Gottipati and student body vice president Sumit Jadhav signed a contract to switch roles at the end of the fall semester, according to a document obtained by The Oracle.

The document lays out an agreement that Gottipati would resign at the end of the fall semester. Following the order of succession, Jadhav would become president and would then appoint Gottipati to the vice president role, according to the contract.

The document was provided to The Oracle by a source who wished to remain anonymous because they feared retaliation. 

The contract was signed on Jan. 29, about two weeks before the tickets for the general election were announced.

After canceling an interview with The Oracle, Gottipati said in a written statement that the pair never intended to swap positions. Gottipati said he and Jadhav are being “targeted” by former SG members. 

“Sumit has two more years at USF and has time to run for President if he desires to in the future, but right now we both have our current positions and are excited to do our job,” Gottipati said. 

Jadhav did not comment at the time of publication. 

Former SG Senate President Fariah Ansari and former SG Senator Krishna Karthik Nanduri were witnesses listed on the contract. Ansari signed the contract, but Nanduri did not.

Though both former SG officials raised ethical concerns about the contract, Senate President Jackson Jones said the agreement is not in violation of SG statutes. 

Jones said he didn’t want to give his opinion on the contract due to his position in the Senate.

“Statutorily wise, I don’t see any problems with it,” he said. “Ethically, that’s difficult because ethics is subjective.”

He said a situation like this is “unprecedented,” and the senators will need to find a general consensus about their course of action.

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An ethics investigation on Gottipati has been formed. However, SG Senate Ethics Committee Chair Venkata Konduru did not comment on whether the investigation is related to the contract or when it began.

After completing the investigation, Konduru said the committee will submit a “course of action” to the Senate.

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There have already been two orders of non-compliance filed against Gottipati. If a third order is filed, senators could vote on whether they want to remove Gottipati from office.

An order of non-compliance is a “written notification” that a person has violated or “failed to adhere” to SG statutes or governing documents, according to SG statutes.

The orders, obtained through public records request, were filed in relation to Gottipati failing to meet some deadlines, such as appointing the entire federal cabinet by the first business day in August and not calling the first meeting of the Activity and Service Recommendation Committee by the third week of September.

The first order was filed in early August, while the second was filed in the last week of September.

Ansari, the former SG Senate president, signed the contract as a “witness” because she thought it was “inconsequential.”

“There’s no way to ensure that this contract would be enforced either way,” Ansari said. 

Ansari called the contract a “clear breach in ethics,” saying it said a lot about the parties’ dedication to the student body. 

“It’s the fact that they went out of their way to draw this document that says a lot more than any of the actual content in the document,” Ansari said.

Nanduri, the former SG Senator, ran for the Tampa campus lieutenant governor position during the spring election. 

His ticket won the election but was disqualified after the SG Supreme Court found them “guilty of intimidating or actively pressuring voters,” according to court documents.

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Nanduri said he ultimately did not sign the contract because it wasn’t the “right thing to do.” 

“I don’t think it would be a nice thing for people to think about student government, that the power is getting switched in the middle of the term,” he said.

He said the situation is “basically a mess.”

“What if [Gottipati] steps down and the Ethics committee does not clear him of coming back as the vice president?” he said. 

Jones, the Senate president, said there will “definitely” be concerns around the contract. He said this was a blind spot in the statutes and that the Senate will discuss if something needs to be changed. 

Though there are SG statutes (404.4.3. and 405.3.1.) requiring legislative officers to serve in their positions for the “summer, fall and spring semesters continuously,” the regulation does not apply to executive officers, such as the student body president and vice president roles.

If a change was made to make it apply to those positions, Jones said it’d be complicated to create and enforce. He said there’d be loopholes to consider, such as resignations or removal from office.

Jones said most SG members do not know about the contract despite some rumors about it. He said he was told about the agreement in October by someone else who “insinuated” that they should keep it “under wraps.”

Jones did not want to name the person who informed him about it. He said he didn’t want the senators to find out about the contract from him because he didn’t want to elicit any “bias.”

Gottipati said the contract is a “serious accusation.” He said he is working with Jadhav on a student body address and encouraged students to reach out if they want to talk.

“We would like to use this moment to show our full transparency and dedication to the student body that elected us,” he said. “I am sure we will get through this, and you can count on us to represent you all.”

This story has been updated.