by Nicole Ramos
Staff Writer
A petition currently circulating the University of La Verne campus reads: “We, the members of the Associated Students Federation, support an emergency special election for the recall of current ASF President, Nancy Adams. We request immediate action regarding this matter.”
In addition, Michelle Ourique, an ASF Forum member since the fall, resigned her position on Tuesday for what is being described as “a problem with time management,” by Carol Fetty, ASF adviser. “She just had a problem working ASF into her schedule,” said Fetty.
Freshman Christopher Braunstein was elected by special selection on Tuesday as a new Forum member, thereby keeping the Forum at six members. But it would seem that ASF is in turmoil once again.
“The students are just fed up, and that’s why a group of them started the petition,” said ASF Publicity Chair Marissa Espinoza. “Someone asked me to pass it around and I said yes because it’s something I believe in because of everything that’s been going on since the beginning of the year.
“For example, during the elections, when the applications were lost, Michelle (Ourique) tried to get in touch with ASF but couldn’t get through. So she was blamed, as the elections chairperson, when actually the loss of the applications was no one’s fault but Nancy’s because she’s the one that lost them.”
Espinoza continued that she felt that, ‘”She (Nancy) has to learn to accept responsibility. Ultimately, things are her responsibility as president. That’s why she’s the president.”
Freshman Erica Fahringer, a student who has signed the petition, commented, “She’s the president, right? So she is supposed to make sure that everyone else does their job. Specific incidents might not have been her fault, but she should have been the one in charge to make sure things were done right.”
Roxane Romero, sophomore, stated, that she is “just tired of her (Nancy) taking credit for things where it isn’t due. One example is the Spring Formal, but really just for everything.”
Romero added that the petition has “at least 70 signatures so far, but there’s no exact count because there are different petitions circulating.”
According to the ASF Constitution, Article XVI, Section 2 Clause 1, “The aforementioned members and officers (of the Forum) may be recalled by a simple majority of ballots cast in a special election held on demand by a petition signed by 20 percent of the ASF membership, provided the petition is approved by a majority of the Judicial Affairs Council.”
The Constitution further states in Article XVII, Section 1, that the Judicial Affairs Council ” … shall interpret and define rules and procedure and hear and determine disputes and cases of individuals which arise under these rules and procedures.”
The registrar’s office stated that the number of full-time undergraduate students on ULV’s central campus is 764. Twenty percent of that number would be about 153 students.
According to Adams, her interpretation of this clause is that the petition must be approved by the Council “before it is distributed. It takes a while.”
She continued that she feels the petition is “very vague. I work with volunteers, and if they don’t do the job, it doesn’t get done – that’s just the nature of the beast. I feel uncomfortable saying ‘You didn’t do your job and this is what happened,’ but I have brought that up in meetings. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to go and do something because someone else didn’t do it.
“In the elections, it was obvious Michelle Ourique didn’t do her job. No one showed up for the hypnotist or the one-man-circus show, so I had to do it. I try to do everything I can.
“I am not going to censor anyone. If they want to say that, they can do whatever they want as long as it is in the parameters of the Constitution.”
Fetty described the accusations against Adams as, “so ridiculous. We only have seven meetings left, and Spring Formal and elections are coming up. There is no verification or documentation of these accusations. Nancy does have responsibility up to a point, but I think it’s about time that individual students take individual responsibility.
“I don’t care to malign anyone, because some students are doing a great job. For example, Esther Gibson has volunteered to do things for Nancy that someone else didn’t do.
“Frankly, I think that there has been difficulty afoot since Nancy beat Julie Vitale in the election for President, because Julie was so popular. There has been a real undercurrent of negativity, and I worry about that a lot. If these students had taken all of their fervor and intensity and put it into something truly productive, it might have made a difference to the ASF and to the campus in general. We might have had a tremendous year. I think the students focus too much on the negative. I think that Nancy has really gotten a bad rap and no credit for what she’s done.”
Former Forum member Vikki Aleman, a junior who resigned her position in January, disagrees. “I quit because I couldn’t take people coming up to me all the time and asking me questions like, ‘Why did you guys (Forum members) do this? Why did you guys decide this?’ about things that we weren’t even doing, that Nancy was doing. I was tired of all the blame I was getting.”
