Pictured above: Daymia “Mia” Bonilla resigned from Student Government after being notified that she was close to being removed from SG.
Courtesy of Daymia Bonilla
By James Bennett III
The Student Government senator who is under university investigation for alleged sexual harassment and non-consensual sexual contact has resigned.
Daymia “Mia” Bonilla’s resignation, dated Feb. 27, came roughly four months after she was elected and cited “a multitude of family and personal issues.”
The resignation letter did not mention the university’s Title IX investigation. Title IX is the federal law that bans sexual violence, sexual harassment and gender discrimination in universities.
Bonilla did not respond to multiple emails from The Crow’s Nest seeking comment about her resignation.
The complaint against her stems from an Oct. 26 incident in which Bonilla, the student who filed the complaint, and a third student all ingested hallucinogenic mushrooms in a campus dorm room.
In an interview with The Crow’s Nest on Dec. 13, Bonilla said she took off her shirt and proposed “having an orgy.” But she denied making non-consensual sexual contact or harassing anybody.
Bonilla said she had never used psychedelics before and felt pressured to ingest the mushrooms because she was new to the university and wanted to fit in.
In the days that followed, she said, the other students pointedly ignored her. Then, Bonilla said, she received a text from her accuser.
If she didn’t resign from the SG senate, the text said, a Title IX complaint would be filed against her.
Before Bonilla resigned, Michael Johnson, the SG senate president pro tempore, said he sent her an email warning her that her unexcused absences from SG meetings were adding up, and that she was nearing the threshold for negative “senate points.”
Senators are removed from SG when they reach negative seven points. At the time of her resignation, Bonilla had negative five points.
The document that outlines the senate point system shows there are 15 ways that senate members can earn positive points.
On the high end, photographic evidence that shows an SG member speaking with four constituents earns them one positive point. On the lower end, a month of perfect attendance at any assigned committee meeting or general assembly earns SG members two-twenty-fifths of a point.
Negative points are earned by missing office hours without excuse; being “out of decorum” with clothing or behavior; and by missing general assembly or committee meetings.
A full point is deducted from SG members who miss entire meetings, while half-points are deducted when members arrive late or leave early from those meetings.
Bonilla lost three points for missing general assembly meetings on Feb. 3, Feb. 17 and Feb. 24. She lost two additional points after missing meetings for the senate policy committee.
