Joshua Fleming

Joshua Fleming served as Speaker of the Association during the 2012—2013 academic year. Prior to having served as speaker, Fleming was the association's Parliamentarian.

Fleming was elected Speaker on the first ballot during an organizational meeting of the newly elected representatives in April of 2012, defeating Sean Elkhatib 10-1 in a secret ballot vote that required a three-fourths majority to win. Justin Kokkinis also ran, but failed to garner a single vote.

Fleming remains one of the most controversial figures in Student Association history. His tumultuous tenure—as Speaker, Parliamentarian and a Representative—was filled with alleged scandal and intrigue. At one point, Fleming faced charges from fellow association representative Daniel Chapman for nonfeasance. He managed to avoid the charges, however, with an orchestrated parliamentary maneuver.

Fleming also made headlines for his seemingly puzzling bylaws interpretations as parliamentarian, including a ruling that declared that 'amending' meeting minutes is different than 'correcting' meeting minutes. Fleming issued the ruling during a meeting in which his friend and fellow member Cassandra Gilkey requested that the association strike controversial comments she made from the record.

Mr. Fleming also ruled that the phrase "the Association may ... for the following purposes..." is not 'limited language' in regards to section 3.5.1 of the organization's bylaws, the portion dealing with executive session proceedings. The author of the bylaws, Jeremy Jones, disagreed.

Finally, Mr. Fleming filed a formal complaint against The Saginaw Valley Journal in 2013 for "continuously [disrupting] the consideration of official business at Student Association meetings." The newspaper was later cleared after an independent investigation.