Student Association executives chose to remain neutral on the proposal to impeach Vice President Tanya Smith.

The executive board and staff stressed in a memo Friday that the SA Constitution does not imply a need for them to take a position on the possible impeachment.

“The Executive Board and Staff has been and shall remain cooperative only in response to questions of fact presented to us by members of the NIU Student Association,” the memo stated.

The memo left the question of Smith’s impeachment to SA senators, who will determine the vice president’s future next week.

In the senate’s Sunday night meeting, Sen. Henry Treftz announced the ground rules for next week’s impeachment debate, which was unanimously approved by the senate.

The format will allow 20 minutes for Smith and the six senators calling for her removal to present their opposing arguments while limiting senate discussion to three minutes per senator.

None of the senators will be able to speak for a second time until each senator has spoken at least once, Treftz said. “I feel it is necessary we have some sort of time limit,” he said.

The opposing sides will have another 10 minutes each to speak after the senate discussion.

After the presentations and discussions, the senate will determine which of the 10 charges are valid through majority vote.

The charges include Smith’s failure to attend important meetings, give adequate information about the Illinois Student Association and hand out staff reports on time.

During the meeting, Smith asked for the petition-signers to make their charges more specific so she could prepare her defense for next week.

In other business at the meeting, former Sen. Russ Stewart, who studied the ISA for the senate two years ago, took questions from senators about the student lobbying group.

Senators revolved their questions around his opinion of the ISA and whether he thought it would be an effective group now. Stewart avoided answering questions about the current running of the ISA, but he said the organization lacked the manpower to do its job well.

“A lot of the time they should have been lobbying they spent doing office work,” he said. “You should really sit back and seriously consider if the ISA is worth it.”

The senate also approved its attendance rules which would allow for no more than two absences. If senators are absent more than twice, they would have to appeal before the Internal Affairs Committee in two weeks. Otherwise, there will be expulsion after final review, directly from IAC.