Two members of the Student Government resigned on Feb. 8, one for commitments outside the organization, and the other for failing to uphold the Student Government’s ethical and judicial standards.
Eleanor Brow, senator for the School of Communication, and Nolan Deming, associate member of the Judicial Board, resigned from SG at the Senate’s last meeting.
Brow stepped down for personal reasons unconnected to Deming’s resignation, she said.
“I resigned from SG because of other school and organizational commitments,” Brow said by email.
Deming faced a potential one-month suspension from SG that had to be approved by fellow Senate members, but he resigned before the vote could be brought to the floor. Complaints were filed against Deming for his use of offensive language in private conversations between SG members, he said.
Deming said that if he had not faced suspension, then he still would have resigned from his position.
“I hadn’t held myself to the proper standards, and I didn’t feel like I was representing the Student Government as I should, so I felt it was necessary that I resign,” he said.
Deming formally apologized during his interview with the Eagle for making his co-workers feel uncomfortable.
“Anyone in the office or in SG who heard the comments that I made and felt unsafe or belittled by them, I apologize for that,” he said.
Deming’s resignation comes at a time of high strain among the members of SG. Former Speaker of the Undergraduate Senate Lars Emerson stepped down Jan. 27 due to a “toxic” environment among AU’s student government, The Eagle previously reported.
“I don’t personally agree with the ethical judicial standards, because they create problems of facing your accuser, [but] I violated the rules of the organization that I signed up to follow, so I needed to fess up to it and deal with the choices that I made myself,” Deming said.
The new code prohibits the use of derogatory and offensive language and behaviors in the office, which is in accordance with AU’s Student Conduct Code, according to SG Comptroller Abby Dunn. Members can send in anonymous or formal complaints against someone in the office, as was the case with Deming, she said.
Both Deming and Dunn hope the trend of SG resignations will not continue, they each said in separate interviews.
“A big portion of people resign because they come in with goals and become disillusioned by process and the people in the organization and decide it’s unworkable,” Deming said.
Dunn also hopes that in the future, no one will have to resign from SG because they feel uncomfortable, she said.
“It makes me genuinely sad to see people stepping down from doing things they enjoy, and I hope that nothing else happens that would make someone feel compelled to step down,” Dunn said in an email. “That being said, Student Government is a group that's supposed to represent students' values and be inclusive, and I don't think it can be that while people feel unsafe working in the offices and with their colleagues.”
