The ASASUD Senate appointed five students selected by incoming President Christian Vasquez to next year’s senate and executive board at a heated special session Thursday evening.
The students appointed were journalism freshman Rheya Spigner as director of administration, current junior Sen. Cameron Polom as director of finance, current Vice President Beth Wischnia as director of public relations, current sophomore Sen. Abby Wischnia as Downtown Arizona Students’ Association director and interdisciplinary studies junior Natasia Bongcas as senator for the School of Letters and Sciences.
However, the first 50 minutes of the hour-long special session were spent debating whether the current senators should make appointments for next year’s student government or not.
Vasquez, the current director of parliamentary procedures, said too many of next year’s senators will leave Arizona before officially assuming office on May 18, leaving next year’s senate to be able to meet and make appointments before summer.
Incoming Vice President and current Sen. Jessica Abercrombie on Wednesday said she and junior Christian Vasquez, ASASUD’s incoming president, wanted the current Senate to appoint their selections so they could have a full executive board heading into the summer.
“The summer is where all the relationships are formed within the executive board, within the senators, where we can really come together as a functioning unit of ASASUD to be able to better serve the students,” said Abercrombie, who abstained from voting on all appointments Thursday.
At the beginning of the meeting, six senators stalled the appointment process by indicating they would not vote for any of Vasquez’s selections, which were nominated by current President Tania Mendes, saying that should be left to next year’s senators.
“Frankly, I think it’s odd to have an outgoing senate vote on who’s going to be leading the campus next year,” said current and incoming Sen. Dustin Volz, who abstained from voting on all appointments Thursday. “I think it’s in every senator’s best interests and it’s their ethical duty to abstain from this entire session.”
Volz also said it would be unethical for the current senate to vote at Thursday’s special session since two of the nominations were current ASASUD senators, Beth Wischnia led senate procedures and Sen. Abercrombie helped select the nominated students.
“If we vote today, this is by far the worst thing that will have happened to ASASUD,” he said. “We’ll be a laughing stock. We already are.”
“You have made us that, Dustin,” said Mendes, who later in the meeting also said Sen. Volz may need to be impeached if he can’t perform his constitutional duties.
Throughout the course of the meeting, five of the senators, including disqualified presidential and vice presidential candidates Andres Cano and Vaughn Hillyard, changed their mind and voted for the appointments.
Junior Sen. Joe Pettinato said he didn’t like having to vote for next year’s student government leaders, but said he did not realize Vasquez would be unable to hold a special session during the summer.
“This sucks, but it’s one of the many things we have to change,” Pettinato said.
Contact the reporter at salvador.rodriguez@asu.edu
