With some senators abstaining from voting, Student Government Association unanimously voted against a resolution to remove Joseph Shepard as student body president during SGA’s meeting Wednesday.

The resolution — authored by Shepard and presented at the last meeting Nov. 18 — came about after Shepard planned a protest last month against President John Bardo. The protest did not happen.

Strong feelings about the resolution were presented at the meeting. Several people spoke in the public forum before the resolution’s reading in support of Shepard.

“This is a loving man,” said Natalie Toney, program coordinator for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. “Joseph, you are not alone.”

Shepard said the public forum overwhelmed him.

“When they started speaking is when I started to get emotional, because I never knew that I impacted so many lives here at Wichita State,” he said.

Shepard said he has experienced negative criticism in recent weeks because of his actions.

As the resolution was being voted on, a handful of senators abstained from voting on it. Sen. Paige Hungate was one of them.

Hungate said she abstained from voting because of potential backlash from her vote. She said she did not feel safe voting.

“I wanted to abstain because I don’t think this resolution was a good thing to go ahead with, anyway,” Hungate said.

Hungate said she is happy the resolution is off the table.

 “I also think that there are several people at this university that have found that his actions were to be not in line with the student body president’s role is,” she said. “I think that some people think that rules were broken. I think there are issues that still need to be addressed.”

At-Large Sen. Tyler Bird also abstained from voting.

“The fact of the matter is in voting for or against the bill, or by voting on this bill at all, you are acknowledging the fact that his actions outside of SGA are means to use a resolution to force him to resign,” Bird said.

Bird also said a vote on the resolution was unprecedented. He said impeachment is the only suitable way to oust a student body president.

“If we’re not going to use impeachment, then there’s no reason to vote for it at all,” he said.

Academics chairman Dalton Glasscock, a sponsor of the resolution, said he was happy to see Senate vote against the resolution.

“I think as a united front, we can move forward together,” Glasscock said.

Shepard said the vote caused him to cry, and he hugged Chief of Staff Kiah Duggins for her support. He said the debate of the resolution was healthy.

“I think debate always needs to occur,” he said. “I think that the individuals who were against it had a lot to say and I think that’s OK and I think that they had valid points.”