At least four ASASUD student government members, including President Christian Vasquez, made posts on Twitter throughout Friday’s Senate meeting.
One tweet posted by Vasquez, which was retweeted by Sens. Natasia Bongcas and Joel Bumanglag during the meeting, read, “Karma sucks doesn’t it? S my D.”
Although “S my D” is commonly used as an insult, Vasquez said he was unaware and that he used it to mean “support my decision.”
Vasquez also said that the tweet was in reference to a text message he received during the meeting, and that it had nothing to do with ASASUD.
“That tweet was something personal,” Vasquez said. “People think my life (revolves) around ASASUD … I still have a personal life.”
When asked why two senators would retweet a personal tweet that wasn’t in reference to ASASUD, Vasquez said, “People retweet me all the time. … I don’t know why.”
At approximately the same time as Vasquez posted the tweet, Vice President Jessica Abercrombie also posted a tweet, which read, “K for #karma.”
Abercrombie could not be reached for an explanation of her tweet.
The meeting began at around 1:30 p.m. and ran past its regular 3:30 p.m. end time.
As many of the ASASUD student government members’ accounts on Twitter are private, the Downtown Devil was made aware of the posts and received screen shots of the tweets from a member of the downtown Phoenix community who requested to remain anonymous.
The time stamps on the tweets indicate that many of the posts were made while Jose Rios Lua, ASASUD director of parliamentary procedures, performed a review of the Senate.
However, Vasquez and Beth Wischnia, ASASUD director of public relations, said there was no connection between the tweets and ASASUD.
Andres Cano, who spoke to request funding on behalf of the ASU Downtown Young Democrats, was last person to speak prior to Rios Lua. He said it is unfortunate to see student government leaders engage in this kind of dialogue during an official meeting.
“Downtown students deserve more from the people they’ve elected to represent them,” Cano said.
The two senators who retweeted Vasquez’s tweet — Bongcas and Bumanglag — also posted several tweets of their own during the meeting.
Bumanglag posted, “@c_vas I put up my e-mail when the photographers come around. LOL” and “@c_vas Cass is watchin you tweet up a storm ;) LOL jp.”
C_vas is Vasquez’s Twitter username.
Following the publication of this article, Bumanglag, who also posted on Facebook during the meeting, said in an e-mail, “My tweets are personal, private and irrelevant to students.”
Bongcas also posted several tweets during the meeting, including, “@Jo_LBumanglag please.. don’t make me put you on blast! SMDH @icanseco @dcolbert101.”
Jo_LBumanglag, icanseco and dcolbert101 are the Twitter usernames of Bumanglag, Judicial Board member Irma Canseco and Sen. Daiyaan Colbert, respectively.
Bongcas could not be reached for comment.
Despite the tweets during Friday’s meeting, there are no plans to control the posting.
“People can tweet whatever they want,” Wischnia said. “We certainly aren’t going to regulate it.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Contact the reporter at connor.radnovich@asu.edu
Correction: February 9, 2011
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Jose Rios Lua’s last name as “Lua” on second reference. His last name is Rios Lua.
