The undergraduate Student Association (SA) Senate voted to pass a once-controversial resolution that would allow the president and treasurer, in a joint act, to remove club council coordinators from their positions last Wednesday. Nineteen senators were in favor, one voted against and two had abstained.
Before the change, a club council coordinator could only be voted out by a 2/3 majority vote in the Senate or by a written petition signed by a majority of the club presidents in the coordinator’s respective council.
Coordinators are considered ex-officio voting members in the Senate and are appointed by both the president and treasurer.
SA President Aisha Adam said clubs have asked SA in the past to change coordinators or to intervene if a coordinator wasn’t doing their job.
“Our answer has always been, ‘Sorry, no, they’re appointed for a year. You’re cooked,’’ Adam said. “This is our way of addressing that. If you are staff of the organization, your hiring and firing process will match up with that of every other staff member in the office.”
The resolution sparked controversy last spring, with senators shooting it down in a tight vote of eight nays, six ayes and three absentions. Many thought it would push an unfair balance of power, opening up a debate that took up most of the hour. Twelve minutes were spent under private legal counsel.
“It worries me to give all that power to the President,” Tyler Herman, last year’s SA student affairs director, said.
Adam defended the move last spring, saying that the senators needed to put trust in the e-board.
In stark contrast, the resolution moved right into a vote during last Wednesday’s meeting with about eight minutes spent on discussion.
“As a current coordinator who has been displeased with the people who were in my position years past, I do believe this is a very necessary check and balance,” Ryder Albano, SA’s engineering club council coordinator, said.
Nadia Bangaroo and Beyonce Thomas-Reynoso contributed to the reporting of this article.
The news desk can be reached at news@ubspectrum.com.
