Three additional members of the Downtown student government quit their posts this weekend, bringing the number of resignations this summer to five total.
Director of Administration Brittany Morris and senators Vivian Padilla and Erika Vera each resigned for “unrelated reasons,” said Director of Public Relations Danielle Chavez in a release.
The resignations come just three weeks after sophomores Ashley Ryder and Anna Gunderson, both senators elected to represent Barrett, The Honors College, announced their resignations due to other commitments.
Journalism sophomore Brittany Morris, who unsuccessfully ran for vice president in the spring on a ticket with Andres Cano, said she resigned from her executive board position on July 30 because she had committed herself to too many activities on top of her classes.
“I had taken on too many extracurricular activities,” Morris said. “I needed to evaluate what is important to my career and degree.”
Morris said she took on more time-consuming activities over the summer, including working a second job and being selected for a volunteer project, and realized she needed to drop some obligations.
Morris said she knows of another student who is currently interested in the director of administration position, but he or she hasn’t yet decided on applying for the position or not.
The other two members leaving are health-science sophomore Erika Vera, elected as a senator for the College of Nursing and Health Innovation, and Vivian Padilla, elected to represent the Walter Cronkite School.
Both Vera and Padilla served as senators last year representing University College and the freshman class, respectively. Both resigned on July 29, according to spokeswoman Chavez.
Padilla said in a statement that she stepped down because she needed to “focus on (her) school work and career.”
Neither Vera nor Padilla returned calls for comment.
Four of eight senators elected in April currently remain on the senate and 10 seats total are currently vacant, leaving less than a third of the senate filled heading into the start of the fall semester, which President Joseph Grossman has promised will be busy.
“It’s sad to see everyone go but I still have to do my job — and I’m going to do my job,” Grossman said.
When senate or executive board seats are vacated, it falls to the USG-D president and executive board to nominate students to fill the open positions.
The senate must then confirm appointed candidates.
Grossman said he has already selected a replacement to fill the Cronkite School seat. Additionally, Grossman said he attended new student orientations during the summer to meet incoming students and publicize the two available freshman class senate seats. There were “six to eight” applications for the freshman seats, Grossman said, and he has offered the positions to two applicants.
Grossman said he will wait for his selections to accept his offers before announcing their names.
This summer’s resignations are the most recent in a long line of Downtown student government representatives leaving mid-term.
Four senators and the director of finance resigned between November 2010 and February 2011 from the previous administration for a variety of reasons, ranging from study abroad trips to constitutional violations.
Several senators also resigned during the 2009-2010 academic year, which was the first year the Downtown campus obtained official student government representation.
Similar to the most recent resignations, the majority of past resignations came from representatives choosing to focus on classes and other extracurricular activities rather than student government.
Contact the reporter at connor.radnovich@asu.edu
Note: The incoming Downtown student government administration is branding itself as “USG-D,” though they are still officially named “ASASUD” until a constitutional amendment is passed and ratified.
