When you are accused and then later punished for doing inappropriate things during a conference paid for by the school, there is no way you should be able to run again for a spot on the student government.

Last semester, some of the members of SGA were accused of drinking alcohol and using drugs during their trip to the Student Senate for California Community Colleges General Assembly conference on the Monterey Peninsula in Nov. 2013.

Of the 19 students in attendance at the conference, five executive board members and 11 senators were suspended by Vice President of Student Services Zav Dadabhoy pending investigations, which resulted in removal of three executive board members, a censure and probation of another board member, and removal of seven senators.

Jimmy Moran, who was treasurer at the time, was one of the executive board members who was either removed from office or placed on probation.

If you are removed from office or placed on probation, why should you be allowed to run again for office?

Maybe he is good at what he does and made one mistake, maybe he is a changed person and is using this term to redeem himself, but let’s get real here.

He ran unopposed, so it’s not like he had to claw his way back to the top; it was handed to him on a silver platter. This isn’t his redemption term, and now that he is vice president, he has that much more power. We should all be afraid of what could be in store for Bakersfield College.

There has to be, or at least should be a bylaw preventing Moran or anybody else who is removed from office or placed on probation from running again. BC doesn’t want another $13,341.24 mistake on our hands.

With SGA looking like a well-oiled machine since Dr. Elizabeth Peisner took over as interim director of student life, you would think she would want to keep moving forward and not be held back by the past.

Students, and even some of the members of the current SGA, have already expressed their opposition of letting Moran keep his position by writing letters to Bakersfield College President Sonya Christian.

Vice President Dadabhoy or President Christian should take the time to figure out if Peisner is unable to see the tension she has let occur by allowing Moran to run again.

Apparently, the moral of the story is, if you plan on messing up and being a complete waste of money, do whatever you want and don’t worry about any type of punishment because next election you can just run for a different position without any consequences.