Senior Katie Leikhim has resigned from her post as Student Union’s vice president, according to SU President David Ader.

Leikhim has been on medical leave from the University this semester, although she will be returning in the spring.

“The Executive Council had some concerns about her health and her ability to perform her job responsibilities,” Ader said.

Numerous attempts to contact Leikhim on Monday and Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Twenty-four hours after Ader announced Leikhim’s resignation in an e-mail to members of Student Union, speculation quickly turned to her probable replacement. According to the SU constitution, both Senate and Treasury must confirm the new VP. In the e-mail he sent Monday night, Ader explained that this process would begin at last night’s Treasury meeting and continue at the Senate meeting tonight.

Early yesterday, numerous sources told Student Life that the Executive Council would recommend Senator Pamela Bookbinder, a junior, for the job. But no names were mentioned at the meeting last night after members of the Treasury tabled replacement talks until next week to allow the student body to digest the news, although Ader admitted that there is a short list of potential candidates.

Treasurers were skeptical about the need to appoint a replacement so quickly.

“I don’t think 12 hours is enough time to make the decision,” said Treasury Representative Hannah Draper, a sophomore. “We owe it to our constituents to give more people the chance to get informed.”

Treasury Representative Judson Clark echoed Draper’s concerns.

“I don’t know how long it takes Exec to nominate a replacement,” said Clark, a sophomore. “I hope it’s more than a day, and if it isn’t, I think the legislature needs more time.”

Some SU members have also expressed concern over the process for replacing Leikhim.

“I am kind of upset that there has been no consultation with the rest of Student Union on this matter,” said a member of Student Union familiar with the efforts to replace Leikhim. “I would like to see the executives ask other SU members their opinions instead of pushing Pam [Bookbinder] into the position without popular consent. They need to slow down and start over.”

Ader and Speaker of the SU Senate Marc Bridge both refused to comment on the nature of the discussions they had had with Leikhim leading to her resignation, calling the conversations privileged and confidential. They would not say what their concerns were about Leikhim’s ability to perform her job.

One problem Ader did cite was that Leikhim was not in St. Louis to help run SU, increasing the Executive Council’s workload.

“Any time that you’ve got long-distance communication, it makes things a little bit tougher,” he said. “It’s one less person here making decisions.”

One of Leikhim’s responsibilities, heading the Joint Class Council, had fallen to Bookbinder, who until recently was also the Speaker of the Senate. Spencer Young took over the Outreach, Retention, and Recruitment committee for Leikhim.

The vice president’s other duties including chairing the Social Programming Board and selecting students for University standing committees.

Some within SU expressed doubts about the legitimacy of Leikhim’s resignation.

For instance, the Chief Justice of SU’s Constitutional Council, Zach Sufrin, said that Leikhim’s verbal resignation was problematic and potentially invalid.

“There is an appearance of impropriety,” he stated. “A resignation can’t be recognized until it’s put on paper with a signature.” He said a verbal resignation would only be valid if it did not leave room for ambiguity.

Other members of the Executive Council said they only heard of Leikhim’s resignation from Ader. Though Ader would not comment on when Leikhim officially resigned, Speaker of the Senate Bridge said it was last week.

“There was no letter of resignation. She told David that she resigned, and David told us,” said Bridge, a member of the Executive Council.

Ader confirmed that there was no official letter of resignation.

“In the most formal of senses, I suppose I’m the only one” that knows Leikhim resigned, admitted Ader. He said he was not aware of Leikhim informing anyone else of her decision to resign.

Sufrin said that reviewing the validity of the resignation may help define the powers of the Constitutional Council.

“I think it’d be very interesting if a case like this were to come to Constitutional Council,” he said.

Popularity: 1% [?]

 Print This Post

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 1st, 2004 at 12:00 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.