The Marquette Student Government Senate backed President Ray Redlingshafer's decision to remove Legislative Vice President Abe Matthew from office by a one-vote margin during Thursday night's MUSG meeting.

The decision comes as a result of a Nov. 15 altercation between Matthew and a Tribune reporter outside of the 2040 Lofts. Matthew took the reporter's ID card from his pocket and said, "Bad things happen when you mess with MUSG."

Redlingshafer's decision to remove Matthew from office needed a majority vote of approval by the Senate in order to take effect. Of the 24 senators present, 12 voted in favor, 11 voted against and two abstained.

Initially, it seemed that the action needed 13 of 24 votes to reach a majority decision.

As a result, the Senate voted on a separate bill that would have suspended Matthew from his position for three weeks starting in the spring semester. That bill required a 3/4 majority vote by the seated Senate – 23 of the 30 total MUSG senators. The measure fell short, as only 16 of the 24 senators voted in favor.

It appeared that no action would be taken against Matthew after the second vote. But everything changed when it was brought to the Senate's attention by advisor Jon Dooley that the one abstaining vote in the initial vote of removal was not supposed to be counted under MUSG rules. Because of this, 12 votes were enough to remove Matthew from office.

"This is pretty bad for me, but this is college and you do learn," Matthew told the Senate after the decision was made official.

Matthew told senators he respected their decision. In an interview after the meeting, he said the senators did their jobs and what they felt is right.

"Well," Matthew said just before exiting the meeting, "as Timothy Leary once said, 'Life is chaos.'"