The senior class delegation in Student Council is at a virtual standstill according to President Iverson Long, with calls for resignation and petitions for removal from office currently circulating.
Conflict among the senior officers surfaced nearly four weeks ago when several senior StuCo members asked class president Payal Patel to resign from her post, claiming that they could not trust her to fulfill the responsibilities that her position entails.
The situation became more complicated Tuesday night when, according to Board of Elections Co-Chair Michael Seibert, Patel submitted to StuCo a petition she had circulated to the senior class calling for a recall of Brian Drolet as vice president of the class.
The petition, which was signed by 164 members of the senior class, accuses Drolet of excluding Patel from internal deliberations, violating an unspecified university policy and exercising poor judgment in making a decision that led to the loss of $3,000 in class funds.
Patel claimed that Drolet mishandled the organization of a club night two weeks ago, which nearly led to the class having its funds frozen due to a violation of university policy.
"The way that Brian flippantly disregarded university policy in contract negotiations has really left the class in jeopardy of not having any further events or a Senior Week," Patel said.
"The catastrophic results of last week's social event, along with Brian's stark refusal and total inability to work together with the entire class council, and dishonest intentions for the welfare of the senior class have sparked this," she added.
Drolet dismissed the claims as "libelous" and based "entirely on falsehoods."
"I am very upset by this defamatory attack on my performance as senior class vice president," he said. "If you ask the members of the senior class, other members of the Student Council, or [Director of Student Involvement] Jeff Groden-Thomas, they will all tell you that I am a respectable and energetic member of the council."
Drolet also maintained that he had the support of the other senior class officers during deliberations regarding the organization of the event. He said that because Groden-Thomas signed the event's documentation he could no longer be implicated in any violation.
Drolet added that he has spoken to Associate Dean of Student Life Dorothy Sheppard and Dean of Student Life Susan Boswell, and said that he is seeking disciplinary action against Patel for what he called slander and character defamation.
Four of the other five officers said that they felt Patel's claims were unfounded and that the vice president never acted inappropriately.
Because Patel collected a sufficient number of signatures, a vote of the senior class will be held next semester to determine whether Drolet will remain on StuCo, Long said.
Instead of taking the same action against Patel, council members will attempt an alteration of the procedure through which representatives are removed from office. A school-wide vote will determine whether or not a separate amendment, recently approved for referendum by StuCo, will be ratified to change this procedure and allow the Council to handle impeachments internally.
If the amendment passes, senior council members may seek to impeach Patel at a later date.
Long said that he fears that the dispute may inhibit StuCo's ability to perform appropriately.
He added, "Everything this class does reflects upon the rest of StuCo. I don't want them to look like a bunch of squabbling kindergartners."
Drolet said that he believes the situation will resolve itself without his removal from office.
"I think that Payal will probably recognize the error of her ways, issue an apology to me, and realize that the most effective senior class council is without her as a leader, given her past record," Drolet said.
He commented that he fears Patel will attempt to have other senior members of StuCo recalled as well.
Patel offered a different solution. "Ideally, for the class' sake, Brian and I should both be put up for recall and the senior class, which voted on its council, should decide who it still wants to represent it," she said.
Both maintained that they hope to get StuCo up and running again as soon as possible.
However, Long was not as optimistic, saying, "I wanted to see an internal solution to this conflict. But given the current situation, it doesn't look good for StuCo."
