Now that the impeachment trial of President Clinton is over, many people, including Iowa State faculty, are forming judgments on the entire process and how it will go down in history.

“It is a good thing that the trial finally ended, and it is a good thing that we can finally put this behind us,” said David Topel, dean of the College of Agriculture.

“I think there could have been a better way of handling it instead of spending $50 million; we need to focus on more important things,” he said. “I am glad he was acquitted for the good of the country.”

Like most Americans, many faculty members felt the process was partisan.

“I am pleased that he was acquitted, but I think it could have been conducted much better,” said Gregg Hodges, temporary professor of English. “I think that the House was, in particular, very much partisan in their pursuit of Clinton and the Senate less so.”

Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science, said the country has learned a lot about government and the way it works from the impeachment trial.

“I think that … it was really painful for this country, but we learned a lot from it, and hopefully, we will be able to govern better,” Schmidt said.

“We learned that it is practically impossible to impeach a president and the process of impeachment is too hard,” he said.

He said the difficulty factor was a result of poor design.

“The founding fathers thought that they came up with a good way to go about the removal of a president, but they were wrong,” he said, “and the way it is now, we will probably never remove a president from office.”

Schmidt said the process of this impeachment trial may discourage future Congresses from taking similar actions.

“Another thing we have learned from this impeachment is that it is no longer a threat to a president,” he said. “Before the impeachment of President Clinton, like with [President Richard] Nixon, impeachment was a threat that a president could be removed from office.

Now that Clinton got off, presidents in the future will not be afraid of impeachment because they know that they will not be removed.”

This impeachment trial always will have a place in history, but the way it will be written is still up in the air, said Joseph Taylor, assistant professor of history.

“It is so hard to tell how history is going to perceive him because he is still the president and still in office,” he said. “He is still developing his legacy, and there is no real way of telling what people will think about this in the future.”

Taylor said Clinton will be remembered for this ordeal forever.

“The impeachment trial will always be connected on how he is evaluated, but they also need to take into consideration how it was carried out,” he said.

“The House and the Senate were very partisan, and that is stating the obvious. They made up the rules as they go along,” Taylor said.