Student Activities decided last Wednesday that Student Government Vice President Alex Prescott will keep his position in the SG for the rest of April, but his role will be significantly diminished as members of his cabinet take over his primary responsibilities.
Prescott was suspended in a vote of 12 to 4 at a meeting of the Undergraduate Senate on March 27 for his failure to plan the Founders’ Day Ball this year, The Eagle previously reported.
Prescott said most of his event-planning responsibilities will now be handled by Senator-at-large Jenny Kim, Eagle Nights Director Riley Fujisaki and other members of his cabinet.
Prescott said he will still officially be vice president, and he will retain signing power over expenses, but he will not be allowed in his office except to sign off on expenses.
Prescott said he can still guide the members of his cabinet as they try to plan events this month, but he has no power over their decisions.
“I’ve offered my aid unofficially,” he said. “But I can’t play any supervisory role.”
Student Activities told Prescott that he would still be compensated for the month of April, despite the cutback in his role as vice president.
Student Activities Program Adviser Andrew Toczydlowski said Student Activities stepped in to address the concerns of the four current SG executives about a recently passed SG by-law regarding suspensions.
The executives were not sure how to proceed with Prescott’s suspension because the by-law did not give concrete rules about when to give suspensions to SG members, according to Toczydlowski.
Student Activities wants to make sure that funds set aside for now-canceled SG events like the Founders’ Day Ball are still used to benefit AU students, Toczydlowski said.
“We felt that in both the interest of time and our vast program-planning experience, it would be easier for us to step in and guide the vice president’s cabinet in bringing a lot of fun and exciting events to fruition this month,” he said in an e-mail.
Class of 2010 Senator and acting-Speaker of the Undergraduate Senate Steve Dalton said he trusts Student Activities and the Senate in their decisions about the vice president.
“While some members of the Senate, myself included, were worried that Student Activities might step in and start dictating new punishments or overturning old ones I think everyone — including Alex Prescott — has come to terms with what was decided by a three-quarters majority of the Senate,” Dalton said.
Dalton also said it was best for Student Activities to take over the vice presidential office, rather than current SG Secretary Colin Meiselman, so there is no ambiguity about who is officially in charge of the vice president’s responsibilities.
The SG constitution states that if the vice president is unable to serve either through removal or by design, the secretary will temporarily take over as acting vice president. Student Activities chose to overrule the constitution and kept Prescott as vice president.
“If Colin Meiselman became the acting vice president, then I think people would wonder why Alex Prescott would still have his signing power,” Dalton said. “However, since Meiselman is not taking that position, then obviously someone needed to have signing power over the account.”
Meiselman said he feels that Student Activities did not make the right decision about the redistribution of responsibilities.
“I am frustrated but not surprised Student Activities did what they did,” Meiselman said in an e-mail. “In my two years working with Student Activities it has become blatantly clear that most of the policies they enforce are arcane and hold student organizations back.”
Meiselman also said he does not believe it is necessary for Student Activities to play such a large role in the Student Government because other colleges do not have student activity offices that “micromanage” like Student Activities. Student Activities should take a step back and let the students play a bigger role in their own organizations, he said.
“I like and respect many of the members of Student Activities, but it is not their job to run student organizations,” Meiselman said. “It is their job to advise and then let students make their own decisions.”
You can reach this staff writer at jryan@theeagleonline.com.
