Two ASUO senators have already resigned, making me wish I had picked a higher number than six for total resignations this year. The two senators are PFC Senate Seat 1 Brennan Lowes and Education Seat 20 Mike McInerney, both elected with Alex McCafferty and Alden Williams on the Reality Check slate.* Their respective resignation letters are below:

Hi Kaitlyn,

This is Brennan Lowes, Senate Seat 1 on PFC. It is unfortunate that I have found myself in a position to have to relinquish my position as Senator. Given my schedule this school year, I do not feel that I could fully commit to the responsibilities associated with PFC and Senate. I want to be fair to the other Senators and the student body; therefore I feel that it is best to resign. I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Please let me know how I can help make this transition as smooth as possible.

Best,
Brennan Lowes

Dear Fellow Senators:
I hope this email finds you well and ready for a fun and successful fall term 2010. I write this email with the utmost respect to each and everyone of you. Currently I am dealing with a large amount of stress due to two majors, one minor, an internship, a job, and fraternity obligations and I have reached a point where the load is becoming overwhelming. I there must respectfully resign Senate Seat 20 effective immediately. I apologize to any of those who are angered or disappointed by this, but I please ask you to understand that this has nothing to do with any of you. I have the utmost respect for the ASUO and the service you all provide to the students at the University of Oregon. Again, if there is any questions or concern to me, please feel free to contact me. I feel that you need to have your full passion and heart/mind into a position such as senate, but due to my heavy course load and other additional activities, I could not provide my full time and dedication to the role. I wish you luck in the upcoming year in all activities each of you participate in, and if there ever is any way I can help any of you, I am always available.

High Regards,
Mike McInerney

If turnover continues like this, it’ll be difficult for the Senate to get anything done. The resignation of a finance senator, like former Sen. Lowes, is even more detrimental because the finance committees are so small, and after a certain point it’s hard to catch those members up on procedure. I guess we’ll just have to see.

*Full disclosure: Prior to working for the Oregon Commentator and coming to my senses, I was heavily involved with the ASUO election process – specifically with the Reality Check slate. Those allegiances are no longer in my line of vision, and I promise to snark on the whole ASUO equally – within reason, of course.

UPDATE:

Just received this email from Summer Senate Chair Kaitlyn Lange:

Hi everyone,

Unfortunately I have some bad news. Though I do not think he will be sending a resignation letter, Tyler Griffin will no longer be a part of senate. He has some extraordinary circumstances that will be preventing him from participating in senate.

-Kaitlyn

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 21st, 2010 at 19:37 by Lyzi Diamond and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.