Over three months after an ethics investigation into USF’s student body president and vice president began, some Student Government Senators were disappointed with the Senate’s failure to charge them with statutory violations during a Tuesday meeting.

Prior to the meeting, the Ethics Committee had found Student Body President Suryakanth Prasad Gottipati and Vice President Sumit Jadhav breached SG statutes. These include “malfeasance” by signing a contract to switch positions and “nonfeasance” by failing to hold required meetings monthly with campus governors.

Related: USF SG leaders signed contract to switch positions

But after a two-and-a-half-hour discussion last Tuesday, the SG Senate rejected the Ethics Committee’s recommended corrective action (COA). Two senators abstained from the vote.

Some SG senators said the Senate’s vote to send the investigation back to the Ethics Committee points toward an issue of conflicts of interest within SG. 

“It is completely unjust and is a complete detriment and honestly laughable to the Senate and Student Government as a whole,” Senate President Jackson Jones said in an interview.

Others, on the other hand, said Gottipati and Jadhav weren’t afforded a fair investigation.

Jadhav, who is running for student body president in this year’s SG election, and Gottipati said they deserve a “fair trial” and that they are being “targeted.”

“Ethics [committee] will get the opportunity to make it right,” they said in a joint statement.

The recommended plan included a written reprimand and non-compliance order against the president and vice president.

A non-compliance order is a “written notification” that an official has violated SG statutes or other rules, according to SG statutes. 

If the COA had passed, it would’ve led to the impeachment of Gottipati as it would’ve been his third non-compliance notice. 

Related: USF Senate discussion about ethics investigation on student body pres and VP delayed

The committee also suggested an amendment to explicitly prohibit the switching of roles between SG officials. 

Senator May Birch, who voted in favor of the Ethics Committee’s recommendations, said “friendship alliances” came into play during the vote. 

Birch said she disagreed with the senators that argued Jadhav and Gottipati didn’t receive a fair chance to defend themselves.

Birch said the failed COA was still a “light sentence.”

During the Tuesday meeting, Birch brought up a university policy that bars university employees from soliciting or accepting “promise of future employment.”

“We cannot allow the faces of SG to break Student Government law, USF policy and then simply get by with maybe a slap on the wrist,” she said. “Maybe even less than that, simply because we’re friends with them and they work down the hall.”

Ethics Committee Chair Venkata Rupesh Konduru presented the recommended plan to the Senate. Still, he was one of the 15 senators who voted to reject it after hearing the discussion.

Konduru said his friendship with the student body president did not affect his decision. 

Konduru said Gottipati and Jadhav will be delivering their testimony related to the nonfeasance on Friday, which the pair didn’t get to do before. 

Konduru said the committee will also consider if Gottipati and Jadhav attempted to schedule the required meetings with the campus governors.

“I thought it would be better to completely investigate the issue,” he said. 

The committee will not continue to investigate the contract further, but the Senate will get another opportunity to vote on that charge, Konduru said. 

Related: USF SG presidential debate tackles immigration, free speech and more

Jones, the Senate president, said people looked past some policies for their own “personal reasons and personal benefits,” which isn’t what the Senate is “supposed to stand for.”

“That’s not what we’re here to do,” he said. “It was very unfortunate [on Tuesday] to have to sit there and just allow that to happen because, at the end of the day, there’s really only so much I can do.”

Still, Jones said the senators turned to “conjecture and personal opinion,” such as whether the signed contract was a joke.

Senator Eduardo Manke, who is running for Tampa campus governor in this election, said he agreed an investigation should’ve been carried out, but he believes it was conducted unfairly.

He said his vote against the COA wasn’t affected by his friendship with Jadhav and Gottipati.

“This should raise alarms on everyone’s mind, but I think that investigation was not conducted in a way to give a fair trial to them,” he said. 

Related: Free speech, funding among topics discussed at USF student government gubernatorial debate

Manke said more witnesses or statements should’ve been collected to make it a “better process.”

Throughout the investigation, the Ethics Committee reached out to seven people but only collected testimony from four of them.

The investigation will return to the Senate floor once the Ethics Committee creates another COA.