Student ignorance affects ASF
Campus Times
November 14, 1997
With the resignation of two Associated Student Federation (ASF) Forum
members last week, it seems internal problems of the organization have become
a concern.
According to ASF President Dan Lougheed, a Forum member's responsibilities
include fulfillment of two office hours per week, regular meeting attendance,
contribution to committee work and meeting with one's constituency. Apparently
both Forum members John Keller and Diana Verduzco did not uphold their responsibilities
of office hour attendance for numerous weeks. Consequently, they were given
a written warning on Oct. 1 that stated one more missed week of office hours
would result in official resignation from the Forum. The two members disregarded
the warning and were forced to resign by the Forum.
"I wouldn't have [resigned] if I had a choice. Seven members screwed
up. Why didn't they get warning letters? Office hours have been a running
issue. Why did they drop the bomb immediately after Homecoming when they
didn't need manpower? They kept us around while we spent 20 hours working
during Homecoming week," said Keller.
Lougheed explained that he had previously based warning letters on office
hour attendance month by month, and that after the first warning letter,
Keller and Verduzco were the only members of the Forum that placed forced
resignation upon themselves.
Keller feels that he was singled out and treated unfairly.
"I can understand where they're coming from. I will now review
it [office hours] week by week instead of monthly to make it fair. With
Homecoming, which takes a lot of preparation, office hours should have been
fulfilled, especially this month," said Lougheed.
On Nov. 5, five other Forum members received written warnings regarding
the same matter, and according to Lougheed, will suffer the same consequences
as Keller and Verduzco if responsibilities are not fulfilled.
Said Keller, "I understand the need to abide by the constitution,
but in this case, it didn't serve the needs of the students. This is a small
enough school and organization to be on intimate terms and shouldn't always
strictly adhere to written policy. We can base decision making on a human
level rather than a bureaucratic one."
Since his resignation, Keller started a petition, although he may decide
to go against attempting to reinstate himself into the Forum position. Keller
needs approximately 200 signatures, or 20 percent of the student body, in
order to qualify for reinstatement. Many students have signed his petition,
but do they really know what they are signing or the reasons behind Keller's
resignation? In other words, students may be helping someone whom ASF's
constitution found unfit in his role to gain a chance to fill that position
once again.
Students complain about the way ASF is run and what it produces to the
student body but back up a situation that they know nothing about? Many
are quick to criticize ASF for not placing the students' needs first, but
when students ignorantly sign a petition that could easily be non-beneficial
to themselves, they are risking their own needs.
The Campus Times commends ASF for going to the trouble to find
representatives who can fulfill their commitments to the students, even
in the face of controversy, but students need to also educate themselves
on the situation before giving their stamp of approval.
