The Associated Students of Madison voted Wednesday to begin approving a change to its bylaws granting the Student Services Finance Committee the power to remove committee members from their positions.
The new bylaws would make it possible for SSFC members to be removed from the committee for violating viewpoint neutrality or threatening other committee members.
The bylaws originally said members could be removed for threatening and coercing other members, but the word ""coerce"" was removed from the language during the meeting.
The bylaws would require three-fourths of the voting members of SSFC to approve the removal, meaning currently seven of nine votes would be needed.
Currently, SSFC can take away members' speaking and voting rights, but only the Student Council can impeach an SSFC member.
SSFC Chair Brandon Williams said the bylaw change is necessary because he feels SSFC and Student Council are equal institutions and SSFC members should have the autonomy to decide the consequences of violations within their own organization.
He added that SSFC allocates millions of dollars in student services funds, so if a member does not practice viewpoint neutrality, UW-Madison could face federal lawsuits and possibly lose the right to allocate those funds.
""That would probably destroy ASM as we know it,"" he said.
Williams added that Student Council meets one-fourth as often as SSFC, making it a much lengthier process for a removal to go through the Student Council.
Although the bylaw change was passed by a 17-2 vote, several members spoke out against the ""threatening"" clause, which led to the removal of the word ""coercion"" from the language.
ASM Academic Affairs Committee Chair Jonah Zinn advocated against the ""coercion"" language, saying it is very difficult to undeniably prove coercion, which would make the removal process too lengthy.
The ASM constitution requires that the bylaw change be approved again at next week's meeting before it can officially be implemented.
