GPSA representatives voted Saturday not to hold a special election to recall their president.
But some members of the Graduate and Professional Student Association say that violated the organization's constitution.
In November, council members drafted a petition to recall Joseph Garcia, and 284 graduate students signed it. The signatures were presented to the council Dec. 1 and verified Saturday.
The petition stated that Garcia failed to hire a three-quarter-time employee to work in the GPSA office as directed by the council, that he has not presented a budget for this fiscal year and that he did not get authorization from the council to hire two part-time employees to help run the office.
Isaac Padilla, chairman of the GPSA finance committee, said the association can hold a recall election only if the council approves it.
Rep. Gene Henley, who abstained from the vote, said the council's decision ignored the students who petitioned Garcia's recall in November.
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"The legislature has no provisions to usurp the rights of the students," he said. "There is no role for the legislature in a recall. I think that is the height of arrogance."
Rep. Danny Hernandez said that while the constitution states that a recall election must be held within 20 days of the petition's verification, the GPSA bylaws allow for the council to vote down the recall.
Rep. Jacob Gallegos said he was disappointed with the council's decision.
"When there's a conflict between the constitution and bylaws, it should always default to the constitution," he said. "I think by defaulting to the bylaws, they did something totally in opposition to what the constitution says."
Padilla said the constitution was subject to many interpretations and had to be clarified before a decision was made.
"There are provisions inside the election code that states the council has to approve to have an election, and we voted not to have one," he said.
Gallegos said the recall election was a waste of time but that the council should respect the petition and those who signed it.
"I think it's wrong that we abridged the power of everyone that signed that, and I think it's going to lead to a loss of legitimacy for GPSA," he said.
The court of review decided the GPSA bylaws override the constitution.
Josh Allison, chief justice of the court of review, said the council risks wasting more time by involving the court and continuing to debate the recall.
"There is a strong argument to say that you may be better off talking about it by yourselves and figuring out what you want to do," he said.
Allison is not a voting member of the council but attends meetings to give advice.
The issue faced by many of the organization's representatives was whether the demands of their constituents were being met.
Rep. Christopher Ramirez said he abstained from the vote because the distinction between the constitution and the bylaws was not clear.
"People will interpret something to meet their agenda, and I didn't think that was fair," he said.
Ramirez said the recall petition is an attack on Garcia's character.
"The reality is the majority of the graduate students don't think that it's a big issue, meaning that it is more of a personal attack than it is a political issue," he said.
In December, the council issued a vote of confidence for Garcia at its meeting. It passed 28-10 with one abstention.
