The first senate member to resign was Kelsey Higgins, the director of interns, who put on her coat in the middle of the meeting and walked out after bursting into tears.
“This is the first year where I’m disgusted and embarrassed by the members of this student senate,” Higgins said.
Senate decided to postpone the vice president election until next week to allow the whole student body to vote.
In the meantime, Emma Wright has been nominated as the interim vice president and Emma Clark, former board of elections chair, volunteered to plan the upcoming election and count the votes.
Details on the logistics of the elections will be released later, but for now, Clark plans to ban the candidates from using any campaign funds at all, “because it’s up to the students and they should make their own choices,” Clark said.
The list of candidates for vice president has shortened since last week, however, as both Allie Erwin and Jacob Chaffin took their names off of the ballot.
“There are those who want to empower … and there are those that want to be in power,” Chaffin said. “I cannot, in good conscience, continue to serve as an elected member of a body that doesn’t value democracy in the same way I do.”
Others senators who resigned included Evan Taylor, fine arts senator, and Treasurer Austin LaForest, whom senator Adam Brown called, “one of the most genuine people to serve on this body.”
Although LaForest did not attend the meeting, a statement prepared by him was read aloud by Morton and cited “bullying and politicking inside and outside of the senate body” as factors in his decision to resign.
Brown was quickly voted in as senate treasurer.
“I think there was some really rich discussion tonight, some really good conversation,” said Ryan Lombardi, senate’s advisor and vice president for Student Affairs. “I’m encouraged by some of the progress and some of the conversation we’ve heard here tonight.”
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