Bulquerin
explains resignation to AS
By Daniel Linck Savino
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer
The Associated Students Senate meeting saw a range of tensions come out between
daily business. Former ASI Administrator Sally Bulquerin elaborated on her recent
resignation from ASI, while Sen. Heidi Chavez, College of
Health and Human Services, made an unusual legislative move rebuking ASI President
Jamie Pollock.
Bulquerin, whose position as administrator was the focus of a recent AS Judiciary
case, resigned from ASI Nov. 23.
She spoke to the Senate to both confirm her
resignation and “express the concerns” she has for student government.
“
Despite my passion for my office and the students it serves, I can no longer
work for, or with, an administration that asks for support but cannot give any
in return,” she said, reading an excerpt from her resignation
letter.
She described a recent executives meeting concerning her work. At that meeting,
she said, the Fellowship Policy, approved several weeks ago by the Senate to
provide her a full $1,322 monthly stipend, was offered to her as “an ultimatum.”
“
President Pollock, the other three executives, and the government adviser Kim
[Hinckson]...criticized and accused my actions of free speech as betrayal, questioned
my qualifications and threatened dismissal,” Bulquerin said.
Bylaws require paid executives not hold any other paying job. Because she previously
had no stipend or other income, Bulquerin found off-campus work. She described
it as being necessary but “against [her] liking” because it would
affect her work as administrator.
Pollock denied Bulquerin’s accusations of hostility.
“
I don’t think that in any way we belittled her,” Pollock said. “I
feel really awful that she feels that way. It was never meant to be hostile at
all, ever.”
Pollock described the fellowship as an alternate-income option.
“The reason that we have the fellowship is so that a student doesn’t
have to have outside employment,” she said.
“
I’m sure that
was part of her decision, because she does have another job.”
“
We never ever asked her to resign, or made any implications [that it was
necessary],” Pollock said.
In a separate battle, a long-running tension between the executive and legislative
branch came to a head.
Chavez and others have repeatedly asked that Pollock’s weekly president’s
report be sent in full form to the Senate.
In the report, Pollock updates the
Senate on her actions and various campus events.
Chavez made a motion to force Pollock to provide a hard copy of her report after
each meeting. The full report, though printed in the weekly minutes, comes out
too late to be of use.
“
Our constituents, all 35,000 students, have a right to know what is happening,” Chavez
said.
Chairman and ASI Vice President Hironao Okahana refined the effort, which was
ultimately approved, to require full hard copies from anyone who makes an official
report to the Senate.
Pollock later said she would be willing to do so, but questioned the necessity
of having an unabriged copy, which often mentions upcoming games and other campus
activities.
“
I would like them to be able to update their colleges, but at the same time,
I don’t think that their update to their colleges should be my report,” Pollock
said. “However, if that is the desire of the board, then that’s what
I’ll do.”
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