One of the glaring omissions was they spoke about how a motion was introduced to remove Khaoula Benghanem from office, but they failed to report that this motion failed, twice. I was appalled at the number of people in the room who accused Benghanem of being guilty until proven innocent. I was under the impression that our society was supposed to work in the reverse order: innocent until proven guilty.

The article also took the things Benghanem said out of context. The article states that “after an hour had passed, [Benghanem] accepted full responsibility and began describing which parts of her reports she had made up, and which were merely uncertain beginnings.”

I will describe the details of this meeting. Grand Marshal Mike Dillon opened with a 20-minute report on the issue at hand, the people he spoke with about it, and his feelings about the matter. After that, every senator was allowed two minutes to speak which could be repeated as many times as they wanted. After Benghanem was able to speak for two minutes, the queue filled with senators who outright accused Benghanem of lying and told her to “face the music” and admit what she did was wrong.

When Benghanem’s turn to speak came back, she admitted that she withheld certain details from the Senate. She admitted that she did not report about the people in the administration who did not want to follow through with the project and did not report about the general stall in the project.

I admit that what she did was wrong. The Senate should be made aware of the full status of every one of its projects so they can do the things they need to do to make things happen. She reported of progress too optimistically because she had faith that her team would be able to get everything off the ground. After an hour of personal attacks on Benghanem, she admitted that what she did was wrong and that she felt horrible since all the businesses she had been working with and administrators that were in favor of this were being overshadowed by a few administrators who thought this was an unrealistic idea. To be honest, the way in which this was handled has shocked me.

The Senate, as well as the article in last week’s issue of The Poly, tried to smear the reputation of a senator and most importantly, an RPI student who they are representing. I give credit to the Grand Marshal for recognizing that the personal attacks were out of line.

However, I am disappointed with the personal degradation of the character of a student at RPI. I am disappointed with the way the article written by The Poly came off and the way it took things out of context. While reading the article, it appeared that Benghanem had admitted that she lied about the project and that no progress had been made. The article mentions fabrications and things being made up. These statements, without details, make it sound extremely negative.

Benghanem admitted to stalls in the project due to bureaucracy and possible delays in completion dates. She also admitted the positives, like all the progress that had been made, and all the Troy businesses that were on board for the project. Any further negatives are pure speculation, and in my eyes, the Senate as well as The Poly were out of line in attacking and smearing the reputation of a student who tried so hard to make a difference at this school.

On a positive note, I do applaud many of the senators who wanted to move towards how to progress on the project as opposed to yelling at one of its members. I applaud that these attacks were recognized as being grossly out of line and I recognize that it was only a few members who resorted to degradation and throwing around accusations. The solution? Televise Senate meetings. This way everyone can see for themselves what goes on in the Senate so it does not have to be passed down second hand.

Gavin Gyle