An employee who is central to the student government’s executive branch resigned Friday because, he said, the current president and vice president’s promise to have an outsider’s approach to student government never came to fruition.
Frustrated with what he called resume padding and “personal aggrandizement,” Finance Coordinator Nick Hudson resigned after more than three years in the University’s student government.
Since joining the ASUO, Hudson said he has continually fallen victim to current and former ASUO Executive “politics of personal destruction” and “inability to provide any meaningful changes,” his five-page resignation letter states.
ASUO President Adam Walsh said he was surprised and disappointed with the loss.
“I don’t know anyone who has been more committed to the ASUO than Nick. He’s given three and a half years of dedicated service to students and student government,” Walsh said.
After praising Hudson for his understanding of “the intricacies of student government” and his hand in the many successes so far this year, Walsh acknowledged some of the issues that Hudson discussed in his resignation letter.
First, Hudson said that one of the main reasons the incidental fee has continued its “astronomical” growth is because the failure of the University administration to fund the organizations that most significantly affect the diversity and population of campus: the Career Center, the Multicultural Center and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Educational and Support Services Program.
Second, he said, the ASUO wasted student dollars by continuing to approve unwarranted budget increases.
“I agree with the larger concerns that he has for student government; I absolutely agree with him,” Walsh said.
Walsh said his administration has been successful on many fronts, including the transfer of the campus radio station KWVA to a long-term EMU program, the stalling of the University administration’s sale of the Westmoreland apartment complex and the follow-up on the promise to allow minimal budget increases.
Another main issue Hudson brought up in his letter is the exclusivity of student government. He said ASUO should be open to all students, but they can rarely get in without being part of the “ASUO circle of friends.”
“Students no longer believe the ASUO Executive is working for them; instead, they believe the ASUO Executive is working for a select few people who benefit from useless policies and personal aggrandizement,” Hudson wrote.
The hiring of “ASUO insiders” has continued through several administrations and Walsh and Coy rarely looked outside the ASUO circle, Hudson wrote.
“I had never been involved in student government before I was elected president,” Walsh said.
Hudson and Ashley Rees, a legislative affairs advocate, are the only staff members from inside the ASUO whom Walsh hired, he said.
You can only hire who applies for a position, Walsh said.
Walsh said the majority of students aren’t interested in student government, and even fewer apply for jobs in the ASUO.
Hudson was appointed by Walsh and Vice President Kyla Coy this summer following Hudson’s endorsement of their ticket after he and running mate Allison Sprouse lost in the primary election for president last spring. Before serving as ASUO finance coordinator, Hudson sat on the Student Senate as treasurer, was an ASUO legislative intern and an Athletic Department Finance Committee appointee.

Contact the campus and federal politics reporter at [email protected]