CJ Ciaramella’s appointment to the ASUO Senate failed Wednesday after the Oregon Commentator editor responded to concerns that he would not take the position seriously by trimming his facial hair in the style of Wilford Brimley and reciting Barack Obama’s inaugural address before the Senate.
Not one senator voted to appoint Ciaramella to the empty seat representing the journalism school after a hearing that forced one spectator to leave the EMU Board Room clutching his mouth to stifle his laughter. Several senators were unable to restrain giggles.
Several senators also decried the hiring process through which ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz chose his appointment. Of the three candidates who applied for the position, Ciaramella was the only one who did not agree to a job interview. ASUO Adviser Consuela Perez-Jefferis, a member of the hiring committee, said the committee recommended a different candidate to Dotters-Katz.
ASUO Vice President Johnny Delashaw said Dotters-Katz made his decision after Senate President Alex McCafferty, who also sat on the hiring committee, told him neither of the applicants interviewed were qualified to sit on the Senate. McCafferty was absent from Wednesday’s meeting. Senate Vice President Emma Kallaway said McCafferty was ill.
Ciaramella refused to definitively answer questions about whether he wanted to be on the Senate in the first place.
“I do want to be on Senate,” Ciaramella said. “But sometimes it hurts me inside.”
Ciaramella said he was attempting to represent journalism students, whom he said “have a black sense of humor.” When Sen. Sandy Weintraub read the letter in which Ciaramella accused senators of being “nominally more intelligent than a trained circus bear,” many senators laughed openly. Afterward, Sen. Hailey Sheldon told Ciaramella she could not vote for him.
“I personally love irony. I’m a huge fan of it-” she began before Ciaramella cut her off.
“I don’t actually like irony,” Ciaramella insisted.
Sen. Cassie Gray said Ciaramella’s use of Obama’s speech offended her.
“Maybe your constituents think that’s funny, but I don’t think that’s funny,” Gray said.
The 11 p.m. closing notice sounded over the EMU intercom just a minute after Ciaramella’s appointment was denied, two hours later than the scheduled end of the meeting. Senators encouraged him to re-apply through the proper process to show he was serious. Delashaw said he and Dotters-Katz would begin the hiring process again.
The Senate also voted during the meeting to give the University Survival Center $4,851 to attend an environmental conference in Washington, D.C., despite Delashaw’s announcement that Dotters-Katz intended to veto the decision. Delashaw said the Survival Center had already received money to attend a different conference and the figure was “arbitrary.” Senators narrowly approved the request, despite Delashaw’s objections.
“We shouldn’t be bullied by it,” Weintraub said.
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