After a month of missed meetings and office hours, two ASUO student senators finally resigned from their positions, narrowly avoiding what could have been a lengthy impeachment process.
Former senators Jessica Burmaster and Kristin Dean stopped attending meetings about a month ago, Senate President Peter Watts said. They also failed to show up for their weekly office hours.
For two weeks, Watts and Senate Ombudsman Skye Tenney tried to contact Dean and Burmaster, but there was no response.
“They’ve been almost impossible to reach,” Watts said.
Last Wednesday, Tenney censured both senators, suggesting punishments for their failure to attend the meetings and office hours. She said that Dean and Burmaster should be removed from their positions and their monthly stipends should be suspended.
Dean and Burmaster submitted their letters of resignation the next day.
“I took on way too much this term … and I just didn’t have the time for it — time or energy, really,” Burmaster said.
Dean said she resigned due to a change in major from business to computer information science.
“My grades were really going down the tube,” she said.
If the senators had not submitted resignations by the next meeting, the Senate would have had to conduct a hearing for each one.
Senate impeachment hearings require a minimum of 30 minutes of argument each from the senator being tried and the ombudsman who lodged the complaint, not to mention time for both rebuttals and closing remarks.
Even if neither Dean nor Burmaster had appeared at their respective hearings, the Senate would have still let the clock run for the allotted time in accordance with ASUO rules.
“A trial would’ve been extremely unpleasant for all parties involved,” Watts said.