The impeachment trial of Undergraduate Student Government (USG) President Galen Foulke, held last night before about 40 people in HUB Alumni Hall, was not resolved as of press time.

Before any evidence or debate ensued, Foulke's defense counselor, Matt Midles, immediately accused Supreme Court Chief Justice Emily de Mers of being biased and requested that she relinquish her position as trial chairman.

"You are a member of the organization that was formed for the express purpose of removing Galen Foulke from office," he said.

De Mers denied the accusation and maintained her position as chairman because she was a nonvoting party.

Midles also asked that the second charge against Foulke, which was dispersing funds that Foulke didn't have access to, be dropped due to vagueness. He noted there was a failure of due process by the prosecuting managers to fully explain the charge.

"There was no way to prepare a defense," Midles said.

The motion was deferred to the voting body. After nearly one and a half hours of debate, voting was held by secret ballot, but Midles' request was dismissed, and the second charge of inappropriate dispersing of funds remained on the impeachment resolution along with the other three charges against Foulke.

These charges included his failure to uphold the USG Constitution, inaccurately representing the student body on the matter of rewriting the constitution and engaging in conduct of a "malfeasant nature" by failing to hire a staff assistant within a reasonable amount of time and hindering effective communication among branch heads.

Due to the unusually large number of students in the gallery for a USG function, voting members of the USG Academic Assembly and the Senate also motioned to move the student forum to the beginning of the trial.

"It's not that frequent that we get this many people out to any of our meetings." Town Sen. Louise Durante said. "The best way to represent our constituents is to hear what they say."

The majority of students who spoke were not in support of the impeachment.

Brandon Rothey, a court clerk, encouraged the voting members of both houses to consider the students they represent.

"Please remember, by the same judgment of the student body that put you here today, those same students put [Foulke] here," he said.

Mark Bagley, USG multicultural affairs co-director, praised Foulke's efforts to promote diversity awareness.

"His goal since he has gotten here has been to make student life better," he said. "You will not be making Penn State a better place by voting to impeach Galen."

Liberal Arts Rep. Nicole Belolan said the move to impeach Foulke was not a personal attack and was necessary to improve undergraduate education.

"We are here to solve internal problems," she said, "so we are not wasting time next semester."

After opening statements, presentation of evidence continued past midnight. As of press time, no decision was reached regarding the four charges against Foulke.

Collegian staff writer Ed Rowe contributed to this report.