Balanced Disappointment
I was once there – as a Minority Leader in the UF Student Senate, I was frequently on the lonely side of an issue. (One time, I proposed a budget amendment to give more money to student groups and got no support for it, even though 6 months later the soon-to-be Treasurer proposed an almost identical amendment).
So, I can feel sorry for the handful of Senators who may have wanted to vote against Lindsay Cosimi’s re-election as Treasurer, but chose not to make waves by declaring their opposition in a recorded vote. But I also can’t feel too sorry, as they didn’t stand up and be counted. All I can really assume is that 74 Senators wanted her back in the job she may not have been qualified to hold, and the none had a problem with it.
Where was the Impact party Senators? Didn’t they oppose her initial election? Certainly they could have objected and being a minority party no one would think any less of them for doing so.
Oh well. Hopefully, Impact will redeem itself this Spring in its fight against the Engage party by coming out in favor of accountability for student leaders. (As it stands, Engage’s likely nominee, John Boyles, basically told the Senators around 8:41pm that he wasn’t going to stop the process – even though in hindsight it may have been illegal, so he’s got a lot to answer for.)
Well, obviously that’s not exactly what Johnboy said, but he did, in fact, say something to the effect of, “we’re going to continue on with the election anyway…”
With the names presented, and the position at hand, Lindsay was the most qualified. It was a sham of an election to say the least. Alternate candidates were selected based on thier unwillingness to actually take the position. It was a shame. The codes should be re-written to ensure that the Senate has ample time to make a well thought out decision. Unfortunatly, this is not the case. With one lackluster candidate, there wasn’t much of a choice. I was tempted to walk out. But that would hardly serve the students. Had a qualified candidate been presented, my vote would have likely been recorded in another manner.
Allison Cullin
Impact Party Leader
There are certainly ways, Allison and “Virgil”, that you could have made your concerns known. And granted, I was only going by what the Alligator reported and the gist of the live-blogging.
I don’t fault you for going with the best person they (questionably) presented, but there are some issues with how this was handled – and honestly, the party in charge (Gator/Engage) has more to explain than you do.
And Ms. Cosimi’s failure to disclose the situation she’s known since May is a bit of a problem as well.