Another student senator resigned Wednesday, the second to leave this summer after being elected in April and finding the position too demanding.
The latest is Sen. Ben Dodds, one of seven sitting senators who ran on the ideologically neutral Students First slate. Dodds cited his grades as the reason for his departure in an e-mail sent to Summer Senate Chairperson Nick Gower.
“I am not academically stable enough to commit nearly the time required to be the senator that the students expected me to be,” Dodds wrote. “I need to focus more of my time (on) the foundation of my life in my schooling. I’m terribly sorry that I took this opportunity and could not produce.”
Gower, a close friend of Dodds’, said Dodds “would not have been allowed to be an ASUO senator” because of his grades.
After Dodds’ resignation and Sen. Christina Ergas’ the week before, the Senate will go into the 2009-10 school year three members short of the full 20. The remaining seat was vacated by ASUO President Emma Kallaway when she assumed the presidency.
Questions about Dodds’ and Ergas’ commitment to the Senate during the campaign have occasioned their resignations, but Gower said the two were “interested people who put forth the time and effort” but were otherwise unable to hold their positions. Ergas resigned citing time commitment after winning her seat unopposed.
Kallaway is responsible for nominating replacements for senators who have resigned, who must then be confirmed by the sitting Senate. She has already selected her own replacement, former presidential rival and 2008-09 Sen. Carina Miller. ASUO Vice President Getachew Kassa said nobody has applied for either of the other seats, although he said he knew of some who were interested in Ergas’ seat.
Dodds’ Senate seat entitled him membership on the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee, which controls the number of football and men’s basketball tickets students can get for free, negotiates payments that allow students to ride Lane Transit District buses by showing their student IDs, and oversees other contracted services for students that includes the Emerald.
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