Sophomore StuCo officers resign - Both StuCo members cite new Constitution as factor

Student Council's new Constitution took away Hallie Jackson's right to vote.

The former sophomore vice president had to watch powerlessly as StuCo tensions mounted and chipped away at class unity and social planning.

"Having this happen really sucked the passion from me," she said.

So she decided to hand in her resignation last week and give up her "baby" after nearly two years of dedication.

Her resignation came at the same time as that of former sophomore class secretary-treasurer Robert Freundlich, who officially resigned at the StuCo meeting this week.

They will be replaced by sophomores Bryan Kaminski and Rob Huang.

Both of the former officers complained about their loss of voting power under the new Constitution, which took away voting rights from the Executive Council and concentrated them in the 16-member Student Assembly.

"It took away any power that we had," said Jackson. "It's frustrating when it goes to Council and you have no vote."

Their resignations shocked StuCo, in which both were active and vocal members.

"They took a monstrous role in the class, and they both were very active in debate on Council," said StuCo President Charles Reyner. "They always cared immensely about each topic that came to Council, and they were always looking out for the student body interest."

Although the StuCo class of 2006 was formerly a tight-knit group, only one original officer remains: sophomore president Christal Ng.

She urged Jackson and Freundlich not to resign, but she said she understood their motivations.

"I thought of resigning myself as well," she said. Now, she and other class members must adapt to a whole new set of student officers.

"It's a blow to the idea of tight-knit class councils," said Reyner.

This goes hand-in-hand with the Constitution, which undermines unified class councils in favor of committees - another reason for Jackson's resignation.

For Jackson, StuCo was a way to get students out of the library to socialize, and class councils were the locus of social planning.

She said last year her class organized the freshman formal and freshman week, and that this year they had planned a range of other social events.

"We were going for the segment of the population that didn't go out a lot," she said.

But under the new Constitution, class officers no longer meet separately, meaning that social planning will no longer be a priority.

"Now your first loyalty isn't to your class - it's to your committee," she said. "So it would be a lot harder to get your class together."

Freundlich thinks this will weaken underclassman influence over decisions about social events, a problem since freshmen and sophomores - most of whom can not legally drink - have different social needs.

"It's harder to target the school as a whole," he said. "And I think the freshmen and sophomores will lose out on this one."

Freundlich's position in particular was targeted for change by the Constitution.

He said he originally ran for secretary-treasurer because he enjoyed handling the money, and he assumed the limited roles of secretary as a secondary job.

"He knew what was going on," said Huang, who worked with Freundlich as a class representative before he lost the December elections. "He knew what to do to keep it on track."

But now that the new Constitution has mainly limited the position to secretarial duties - such as sending out a weekly e-mail to class officers - Freundlich has opted out of the position.

"I don't feel like wasting my time at a job that's useless," he said.

Despite their resignations, Freundlich and Jackson think StuCo will eventually recover from its current impasse but probably not until next year.

"I don't think it's going in the right direction," said Jackson. "But there are certain people that will make it work."

Their replacements, Huang and Kaminski, worked closely with them before their resignation.

"The people that have come to replace the ... turnover that has happened ... have either been on Council before, or they have relatively the same types of priorities as the previous members," said Kaminski, who said he will continue to consult Jackson as he eases into his new position.

But with the new limitations imposed by the Constitution, the sophomore class may not retrieve the same sense of unity it had before the StuCo upheaval.

"The idea of class councils being really close and doing lots of things for their class seems to have been lost," said Reyner. "This year's sophomore class has been eaten away by the Constitution."