The 68th session of Student Senate addressed executive cabinet nominations at its Wednesday general meeting and rejected two candidates.
With a vote of 24 to 22, Hannah Wimberly, who was nominated by Student Body President Joseph Benigno for executive vice president, failed to garner enough votes from student senators for approval. Likewise, Emma Douglas, who was nominated for operations executive vice president, was denied by a vote of 39-7.
A special session has been called for 7 p.m. Monday to re-consider nominations for the two positions.
Those who opposed Wimberly’s nomination like Speaker Pro Temp Aubre Dean said Wimberly is qualified, but student senators have reason to believe she would not complete her full term. Dean said she found it troubling that the past two EVPs have resigned earlier in their term to run for student body president and didn’t want to see the trend continue.
“The problem is that she cannot promise that she will do the job until the end of her term,” Dean said. “It just doesn’t make sense to put people in the position who are going to use it as a stepping stone to move on to something bigger and something better.”
Joseph Hood, finance chair, said he heard from Wimberly that if she did decide to run for student body president, she would not resign from her position.
“If she comes forward and says, ‘I’m not able to do it,’ or ‘I have to resign,’ there are 200,000 other reasons why she might have to leave that position, family issues,” Hood said. “We cannot make someone stand on their word to predict a year in the future.”
Student senators who opposed Douglas’ nomination said her shortcomings as election commissioner in the last year were a source of concern.
Daniel Bosworth, constituency affairs chair, said Douglas showed an inability to voice concerns about problems with the Spring 2015 student body elections. Bosworth said such behavior would not be accepted in a workplace and should not be accepted by student government.
“She did not do her job properly in the spring of 2015,” Bosworth said. “When you go work in a job, when you’re a manager of some IT firm or something like that, you are expected to know what you do on the job, first day whether it was your fault or the manager’s three years ago.”
Benigno said he selected Wimberly and Douglas because he felt they were the best qualified for the job and that he has not yet decided on other nominees yet.
“I know there was some concern about her ability to interpret election regulations,” Benigno said referring to Douglas. “I don’t think there are any reasons to be concerned about her ability as a worker.”
Regarding Wimberly, Benigno said there needs to be an EVP before the summer.
“She’s the best person for the job, there is no doubt in my mind,” Benigno said when addressing Student Senate. “She’s extremely qualified. It seems like you have more of a problem with the position of EVP than with Hannah.”
Student Senate did, however, approve political science senior Wayne Beckermann as vice president of municipal affairs and nutritional science senior Kallie Fuchs as election commissioner.