Four more senators resign from posts

Senate forced to hold mid-year elections

Sunday's Student Senate meeting was plagued by another rash of resignations. Four more senators have resigned, following the five who resigned last semester.

Junior senator Angela Migally, sophomore Erika Hansen and junior Sarah Fineberg cited academic reasons for their resignations. Hanson wished to dispell any images that the state of Senate was driving senators away. "We are really very satisfied with Senate," she said.

However, others claim differently. Financial problems have compounded the academic restraints on senior senator Adriana Lopez-Young, as she cited financial situations as her reason for resigning.

According to sophomore senator Micah Thorner, paychecks come straight from Student Finance Committee funds, which means the number of hours that senators can work are limited because of SFC's budget. The federal government is required to pay for 75 percent of the wages for students on work study. Students paid by the federal government are not allowed to volunteer for their employer in order to prevent employers from exploiting unpaid overtime. This became a problem for the senate because senators would take extra time to do work for which SFC could not pay. This extra time was deemed volunteer work according to federal government regulations and therefore the SFC would not be reimbursed for any overtime payments made to senators.

This complication, however, is in the process of being resolved by Thorner, Senate's membership coordinator. Thorner, along with the Office of Financial Aid, which handles the federal money, can show that the volunteer hours were all doing unofficial business. Financial Aid will review the records and will pay back SFC with federal money by the fall.

However, as Thorner battles through the financial red tape, senators were still unclear about whether they would get paid this semester, and Lopez-Young's resignation will be official when she announces it at Sunday's public meeting.

So few senators remain in their positions that elections are no longer optional. Nominations began on Feb. 14 and will contiue for one week. Elections will be held from Feb. 22 to 26 to fill the ten open seats. The first meeting of Senate with its majority of new members will be Sunday, Feb. 28, following the spring retreat earlier that day.

A rush for new senators is imperative. Without the ten senators who have resigned thus far, Senate has been brought practically to a stand still. Those senators who have not resigned are spending their time on the election campaign.

Senator junior BJ Renteria, who tendered his resignation at the end of last semester, has volunteered to head the election campaign. Along with the usual posters announcing nominations and voting, the senate will be distributing ballots in mailboxes, publishing candidate statements and working in Stevenson dining hall to collect votes. Twenty percent of the College must turn in ballots before the vote is official.

Along with the second rash of resignations came a large number of seat vacancies on various committees. Seats on the Educational Planning and Policies, Individual Major, Athletics, Educational Technology, Standing Committee on Pluralism and Equality, Financial Aid, Campus Safety, Shareholder Responsibility, Student Finance, and Forum board committees are open. Senate will be holding interviews to fill these positions Sunday.