A Government of the Student Body senator called for the impeachment of GSB President T.J. Schneider during Wednesday’s senate meeting if a recent incident of invasion of privacy is not addressed.

Due to “grievous misbehavior” on the part of Schneider, GSB off-campus Senator William Rock called for Schneider to explain his actions or resign his position. If Schneider isn’t willing to do so, Rock said he will call for impeachment.

Schneider said he was not at the GSB senate meeting due to illness.

On Monday, Schneider accessed a personal file of Dan Kline, GSB off-campus senator, without permission from Kline. The file contained Kline’s suggestions for the resolution of the GSB budget deficit, he said.

“It’s not so much [the access to] the file as the whole principle behind it,” Kline said. “It was by definition my file.”

The incident is a violation of trust, Rock said. He said he believes without trust it is impossible for members of GSB to work together effectively.

Schneider said because time restricted him from speaking with those involved with the budget, he accessed the file so he could stay informed. He said he did not intend to “sneak by” anyone. He did tell Kline he had accessed the file in later conversations, he said.

The document was created last Thursday.

Schneider said he left Friday for an out-of-state conference and returned to Ames late Sunday evening. The regular allocations bills were due Monday, before the he and Kline could converse. The lack of time for communication lead to the unapproved access, Kline said.

“We would have talked about [the items in the document] if we would have had more time,” he said.

Monday evening Schneider approached Kline and expressed concern about the ways the finance committee was going to balance the budget. Schneider told Kline he had seen a copy of the document in question. Kline said he knew GSB Finance Director David Boike and himself were the only two to know of the document’s existence.

Schneider apologized Tuesday for accessing Kline’s document, Kline said.

This invasion of privacy is one of many miscommunications between GSB senate and the executive cabinet, Rock said.

“There seems to be an attitude among the administration that the senate does not need to be informed [of executive actions],” he said.

For example, the director of information technology, a former executive cabinet position which was recently eliminated, and replaced through an executive order to create a the staff IT administrator position, according to GSB documents.

Schneider hired a staff member before the senate approved the changes in the bylaws which would eliminate the former cabinet position.

Since Monday, Schneider has proposed making the staff IT administrator report to all three branches of student government instead of only the executive branch, Kline said.

“That’s the future of the position several senators wanted to see [when the bill was presented],” he said.

Schneider said he doesn’t believe there has been a lack of communication, or that this issue affects students.

He said he will continue to speak with senators on a daily basis.

He may also work to increase communication.

Rock said he is confident the issue will not escalate to impeachment.

“I don’t want to draw up papers of impeachment,” he said. “But if necessary, I will do it.”