SG Vice President Jeff Hanley and Comptroller David Teslicko announced yesterday their resignation plans, officially leaving SG President Joe Vidulich as the sole survivor of this frantic fall semester.
Although Hanley's and Teslicko's resignations coincide with their spring semester trips abroad, their academic aspirations barely justify their perceivably unexpected announcement. The Eagle endorsed both Hanley and Teslicko under the impression that they would serve the entirety of their terms, but had either candidate informed us they intended to study abroad, we may have withheld our endorsement. True, Hanley and Teslicko ran unopposed, but at least our reservation would have been in the name of transparency and fairness.
Instead, there are now two more vacancies in the SG executive cabinet, a void only significant because of former Secretary Alex Manzanares' resignation earlier this semester. The SG fills secretary and comptroller openings through presidential appointments; Vidulich selects a viable candidate, and the senate confirms Vidulich's choice. As a result of Teslicko's premature departure, there are soon to be two appointees filling normally elected, paid positions in the SG.
But what of Hanley's office? According to the SG constitution, the student body elects replacement vice presidents, and that vote is supposed to occur on Nov. 19, two weeks from today, according to Amy McConnel, Board of Elections chairwoman.
Albeit appreciated, such expedience does little more than re-emphasize an argument we made in our previous editorials. It took Vidulich and his advisory commission nearly a month to shift Cait Douglas, Vidulich's former unconfirmed chief of staff, from acting to appointed secretary. If the SG cited a month as too short a time to conduct a campus election to replace Manzanares, how is two weeks during one of the busiest times of the semester any more or less plausible a solution to replace Hanley? Naturally, we welcome the SG's inclusion of students' voice, but we're skeptical of the timetable.
Regardless of how the SG fills Hanley's and Teslicko's vacancies, one thing remains clear: What we once deemed a cohesive political unit devoted to representing students' desires and concerns may soon be a half-elected, half-appointed medley of students.
We hope the SG learns from this tough semester and revises its selection and election processes accordingly. But we also hope this doesn't deter even more students from getting involved with the SG. We'd prefer Vidulich not to be a sole survivor in more than one respect, and moments like these do little more than solidify
just that.
