Author: Lilliane Ballesteros
Following the resignation of Senior Senator Ken Smutny, scheduled to be effective as of April 3, ASOC President Ryan Bowen (senior) presented James Gillan (senior) to the Senate on April 2 as Smutny’s replacement for the remainder of the semester. The Senate officially appointed Gillan, who served as the only candidate for the position, at the April 9 Senate meeting.
As outlined in Article 3 of the Constitution, “In the event of a vacancy in the office of a Senator, if there are fewer than 10 weeks remaining in the Senator’s term, the President shall appoint an individual for the unexpired term of office with the majority confirmation of the Senate. The President shall not vote in the Senate confirmation vote.”
Bowen announced Gillan as a viable option to replace Smutny at the April 2 Senate meeting. Bowen announced at the meeting that Smutny had informed the ASOC President of his resignation via email and advised Bowen that he preferred his position remain vacant. Although the Senators voiced their approval of Gillan as a replacement for the rest of the semester, the Senate could not approve Gillan until the resignation was made official. During the April 2 meeting, Gillan acted as Smutny’s proxy. Smutny’s resignation went into effect April 3.
According to the Constitution, “The President shall inform Senate of their nomination at least three days prior to the confirmation meeting.”
Although the entire Senate approved Gillan to replace Smutny, Bowen’s failure to announce the resignation to the campus in order to allow students to apply for the position went against Article 3 of the Constitution, which states, “Applications shall be solicited for a period of at least one week.”
“The leaders in ASOC need to play by the rules, not matter how mundane they are,” Smutny said.
Bowen commented on his decision to appoint Gillan. “To solicit applications could mean several things. I wanted to streamline the procedure and the By-laws supported that.” The Senate By-laws do not state that the President must solicit applications.
“I followed the Bylaws over the Constitution,” Bowen said. “I didn’t openly solicit applications the way [Smutny] would have liked. I interviewed two individuals. I wanted to solve this as soon as possible,” Bowen said.
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