Illinois Student Government President Marcia Fuentes' attempt to temporarily remove all six committee chairs from their positions was overruled by ISG assembly members Thursday, who called the action "unconstitutional" and are seeking to censure her for the action.

Fuentes had issued a presidential directive at the ISG meeting suspending the voting rights of Derek Chan, Matt Diller, Andrew Erskine, Cate Parkin, Dave Shore, and Kalycia Watson, saying that the election process for some was "devoid of integrity and fairness."

In particular, Fuentes criticized the process by which the chairs were selected for the cultural affairs committee, academic affairs committee and the graduate affairs committee, saying that the public was not given a chance to participate in the election, and that chairs were named that had never attended meetings of their committees before.

"I want this organization to be clear of scandal," she said. "If their positions aren't voted on in a legitimate manner ... what's the point of committees?"

However, ISG assembly members overruled the directive, 11-0, with one abstention.

ISG members said they were more concerned about the way Fuentes handled the situation than the committee chair voting process itself.

"The big objection was that she was going aginst the constitution and bylaws," said ISG assembly member Brian Colgan.

Others objected to Fuentes' use of a presidential directive — the first issued by an ISG president in at least six years.

"You say we haven't done it in 6 years?" Fuentes replied. "Hello, I'm the president. Let's do this the right way."

Others were troubled that they didn't hear about Fuentes' decision until they read it in Thursday's newspaper.

"That was totally, totally rude," Watson said.

ISG members tabled an assembly order at the meeting censuring Fuentes for two weeks for "drastically overstepp(ing) her authorities."

Watson also said Fuentes' action did not improve ISG's image, but rather hurt it.

"This hurts our image as we were trying to rebuild and reach out to (students)," Watson said.

Fuentes said despite the debate, she would continue to fight to reform the Illinois Student Government.

"The student body elected me to reform student government in a way that was ... representative of them," she said.