Impeachment charges brought against Undergraduate Student Government (USG) President Galen Foulke were voted down early yesterday morning at a joint session of the USG Academy Assembly and Senate.

Tuesday night's impeachment trial lasted more than six hours, with a final decision announced at about 2:30 a.m.

Foulke said he was happy to have the trial behind him.

"This took up practically all my time," he said. "It's been a long time since I've been able to fully focus on my job."

The impeachment process began Nov. 15 on the heels of a grievance filed against Foulke by assembly President Mark Levin in the USG Supreme Court.

Testimony and evidence at the impeachment trial were presented before a joint session of the assembly and USG on charges that Foulke violated the USG Constitution.

Although the assembly voted unanimously to begin the impeachment proceedings, College of Education Rep. Andrea Harding gave an emotional speech to the congress and admitted that impeaching Foulke without first addressing the assembly's concerns with him was a mistake.

"I'm willing to say I was wrong," she said with teary eyes. Her comments were greeted by cheers and applause by an audience filled with students wearing campaign shirts and stickers from Foulke and Vice President Luke Adams' election campaign in March.

Each of the four charges brought against Foulke received less than half of the two-thirds vote needed to find him guilty.

Levin said the trial exposed flaws in the USG Constitution, including vague language, but said the trial itself was run "by the book" and represented "proper channels" for the complaints.

"I would imagine there would be amendments coming down the pipes," he said, referring to the possibility of making changes to the constitution to clear up issues that surfaced at the impeachment trial.

Town Sen. Chris Winn said he was relieved at the decision and was happy that both Foulke and the Senate could return to work. He said the impeachment trial cut short a regularly scheduled Senate meeting to 45 minutes.

"It could have been much longer and it should have been much longer," he said, adding that the impeachment process kept USG members from doing work for students.

Foulke said the result of the impeachment indicates that congress believes his attempts to rewrite the constitution do not violate his oath of office.

"There was extra emphasis on the constitutional review commission," he said. "That was the focus [of the impeachment]."

The assembly charged that Foulke's oath requires him to defend the constitution.

"We saw overwhelming evidence that the student body demands that this commission be allowed to complete its mission," he said.

School of Information Sciences and Technology Faculty Sen. Rishi Das, a manager at the trial who presented evidence on the charges against Foulke, said he was neither disappointed nor overjoyed at the outcome, but was happy the impeachment was over.

"I know all the stress I've been through," he said.

Das said he was happy to see so many students in the gallery, especially because so many stayed until the final decision was announced. USG Chief of Staff Erin Ferris estimated there were about 80 people in the gallery, including about 20 executive cabinet members.

Ferris said the process has been a drain on Foulke.

"He literally just doesn't sleep because he doesn't want it to affect his work," she said. "It's great that it's over."