Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the July 26, 2022 flip book. 

Student Government President Leland Murphy removed the co-director of SG’s Longhorn Entrepreneurship Agency on July 19 for mishandling funds after he and the other co-director spent hundreds of the agency’s dollars on Torchy’s Tacos without approval last semester.  

Former LEA co-director Dhruvraj Sata placed an order of 70 tacos from Torchy’s Tacos for an event during Entrepreneurship Week 2022, which took place April 20-22. The order was made without approval and insufficient funds in the agency’s account, according to emails between Sata and SG’s financial advisor Veronica Cantu. After multiple requests asking Sata to resign and an impeachment inquiry, Murphy said he removed Sata from his position, with approval from the Dean of Students, because removal was quicker than an impeachment trial. 

“We wanted to immediately step in and remove (him) to ensure accountability, responsibility, transparency, within not just the executive branch, but all of SG, in general, to set SG on a better course than previous years,” government senior Murphy said.  

Murphy said the order Sata placed at Torchy’s Tacos was roughly $500. However, Sata said in an email that the order was $300. 

Sata said the order was an “honest mistake” by the LEA administration and the order was supposed to be canceled. The LEA co-directors, Sata and Shruti Sahu, “assumed Torchy’s would not fulfill the order” after they were informed by Cantu that the agency had $0 in their account, according to emails between Cantu and the co-directors. 

“We’ve since issued multiple formal apologies, offered to reimburse any fines and made the necessary amends within the organization to avoid such a situation in the future,” marketing senior Sata said. “Even with our best efforts, we’re sad to learn that the student government has decided to go ahead with their decision of ‘impeachment’.”  

SG Vice President Isabel Agbassi said the decision to remove Sata was not only due to the Torchy’s Tacos order, but also because of a lack of communication on “multiple instances.” However, she did not elaborate on what those instances were when asked by The Daily Texan. Agbassi said open communication is an expectation of SG leaders, and it is not outside of the norm to remove leaders of SG agencies for not meeting expectations. 

“If we’re seeing issues early on, it’s better to be proactive than to wait for them to boil and potentially have it harm other people, or hinder other people from doing their best work,” public health junior Agbassi said. 

SG agencies have worked all summer to plan for the upcoming year, Agbassi said, and appointing someone as co-director of LEA at the end of the summer does not provide enough time for the agency to develop a plan for the fall semester. Sahu resigned at the end of the spring semester, leaving Sata as the only co-director in charge. The lack of leadership for LEA has caused Agbassi and Murphy to reevaluate if the agency, which looks to “foster and support entrepreneurship among students,” fits into their platform and goals for SG, Agbassi said.  

“The President has the power to declare agencies inactive,” Murphy said. “That’s one thing we’re potentially looking at doing for that specific agency just because the year has already started and things are already set in motion.”