Senator marks 7th to resign

The ASUO Senate’s treasurer resigned Tuesday, making her the seventh member of the 20-seat committee to leave the Senate following the 2009 ASUO election.

It’s an uncommonly high number — before winter term began, as many senators had resigned as did so in the entire 2008-09 school year — but nobody within the ASUO has offered an explanation for the sheer numbers. Indeed, ASUO leaders said they thought the number was an anomaly, not a trend.

“I understand why it looks that way,” Senate President Nick Gower said, “but look at the individual cases.”

Three senators resigned before the school year had even begun. Two cited time commitments, while one had slipped below the grade point average necessary to hold a Senate seat. Two more resigned within the first two weeks of the term, also citing time commitments. Four were newly elected senators, while Lidiana Soto was one of the Senate’s senior members.

There is an institutional reason behind the resignations, Gower said, but it is an issue with the Senate itself, not the particular group. He said students apply to run for ASUO positions without grasping the time commitment that will be required.

“The responsibility falls on those running campaigns to make it clear what the commitment will be,” Gower said.

Nevertheless, the Senate’s leadership took action to stem the trend toward resignations after the year’s first five. Senate Vice President Nick Schultz took measures to combat resignations, holding meetings with each senator to help them create schedules that could withstand their time commitments.

Diamond overwhelmed

Diamond, who was the Senate’s treasurer, was an exception to the rule, both she and Gower agreed. Diamond was heavily involved in the ASUO before filing to run and became one of the more outspoken senators.

“I’d like to think that my resignation isn’t a part of any larger trends,” she said.

Gower said Diamond was not one of the senators he considered likely to resign.

Diamond announced her decision to resign Tuesday in an e-mail sent to the Senate, ASUO President Emma Kallaway and the subcommittee on which she served.

“While I do incredibly value my work in student government and treasure the opportunity to serve students, I feel that added stresses in my life are not allowing me to be the type of representative I’d like to be,” she wrote.

She said she had understood the time commitment for the position when she ran, but that she had discovered that her winter term class schedule and her schedule in a second job at the campus radio station were too demanding.

“I work and I take a lot of hard classes, and my personal well-being was suffering because of lack of sleep,” she said.

Diamond was a consistent fiscally conservative vote on the Senate, whose primary job is to allocate money raised through student fees.

“A whole new ball game”

Despite her resignation, Diamond said she plans to run for ASUO president in the spring. Time commitments will not be a problem, she said, because “2010-11 is a whole new ball game.”

It’s unclear whether Diamond is serious about her candidacy.

She said her running mate would be CJ Ciaramella, a former Emerald reporter who is also her boyfriend. Ciaramella was appointed to the Senate in winter of 2009 but was rejected after he mocked the Senate in his confirmation hearing. He is a senior one term from graduation. Diamond herself did not answer clearly when asked whether her candidacy was a joke.

However, there is a precedent for seniors running for ASUO president. Two of the five candidates for ASUO president in the 2009 election were seniors when they ran, and election runner-up Michelle Haley even said she would run a joke campaign in a March 2009 interview.

atomchak@dailyemerald.com

• Facebook Comments
• Site Comments

4 comments

KMP

Wed Feb 10 2010 19:32

I had to laugh when a classmate pointed out the subheading that says Diamond is resigning but "still plans to run for ASUO president," and called her our very own Sarah Palin. Though I consider a Palin-comparison to be a tremendous insult, I have to wonder how either woman could possibly consider themselves capable of handling presidency after having to drop out of their elected leadership position. If Diamond can't handle the current stress, I have absolutely no confidence that she could ever handle the challenges and additional stress of being ASUO president.

And for the record, the possibility of her boyfriend being her running mate makes the entire idea seem laughable. Heaven forbid the president and the vice president break up.

Monica

Wed Feb 10 2010 17:01

Lyzi abstained because she felt she was in too much of an emotional state to vote on such a resolution. I don't think that's cowardly - I think that's being level-headed and responsible. This debate has been so contentious and heated that I feel it would be, at times, entirely necessary to remove yourself from the conversation and look at the issue in a level-headed state of mind.

What's cowardly is anonymously posting rude and close-minded comments on a website where there is no accountability for what you post, even if you were to leave your name. Unless you have something to hide, I suggest you practice what you preach before you make accusations like that.

Lyzi

Wed Feb 10 2010 16:31

Damn straight.

Anonymous

Wed Feb 10 2010 16:07

Lyzi is a straight up coward for her vote on the Pacifica Forum resolution, where she abstained even though she spoke out strongly against it. Another senator called her out, and Lyzi ran form the room crying. Is this the kind of leadership that we want in an ASUO Executive? It's a good thing she is off senate, and her candidacy will be a barrel of laughs in the spring.

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out