Above photo: Chair of the Student Government appropriations committee Albert Moreno (left) resigned a week before the budget was completed, and vice chair Kevin Castle followed suit five days later. Both complained about the SG’s culture. Jonah Hinebaugh | The Crow’s Nest
By Jonah Hinebaugh
A week before the 2018-2019 budget was finalized, the Student Government appropriations committee lost four of its 13 members.
Among those four were Albert Moreno and Kevin Castle, the chair and vice chair of the committee, respectively. The resignation left student body president-elect Kaeden Kelso and senator Carter Goetzke to take their place and finalize the budget.
Moreno, who has spent the past week touring Europe, and Castle both cited issues with SG’s culture as the reason for their resignation.
“Student Government has strong words as their value system, but they’re only words. (Those values are) rarely put into action when it’s needed. But hey, they look great on the back of those pink shirts,” Moreno said in an email to The Crow’s Nest.
Castle said the lack of maturity throughout SG, specifically the appropriations committee, was what kept him from running as the chair for the committee.
“It’s basically sharing a committee with people who don’t look at the agendas before the meetings and ask questions that just lead us in circles,” Castle said.
Student body president David Thompson wasn’t fazed by Moreno’s resignation.
“He did this exact (same) thing last year,” Thompson said. “This year when he did it, I was like, ‘We’ve seen this play out before. I’m not going to get frustrated.’”
Thompson and Castle disagreed on whether SG members should be paid.
Thompson thinks the money is what allows people to dedicate time and effort.
“If you take away the ability for people to get paid, you’re only really going to have rich people running Student Government,” Thompson said.
Castle said removing salaries would eliminate the people who are only attracted for financial reasons and usher in students who want to make a positive impact both in SG and the campus as a whole.
Moreno agreed with Thompson that compensation for the time dedicated is important for those who have the best interest of the campus in mind, but he thinks SG lacks that motivation.
“During my last General Assembly meeting I overheard a young female student ask what position is in charge of all the money because that what she wants because that’s where all the power is,” Moreno said.
Thompson said he saw their resignations as a protest.
He said that Castle didn’t respect his leadership as student body president, but he was still surprised Castle stepped down. Thompson also said Castle could have recruited students who he thought would be good senators.
“It may had been that they didn’t believe in (the budget) and didn’t want to be attached in it,” Thompson said.
“This current term is very proud of the values they try to represent, but they don’t (represent them),” Castle said.
Castle said that the small groups of people who want to make a change aren’t able to do so.
“That’s why you’ve seen all of us resign over the past couple weeks, it’s become apparent that our time is being wasted,” he said.
Mariah McQueen, who has publicly opposed SG’s message since being disqualified from the student body president election, and senator Sebastian Diaz have also announced their resignations.
When Goetzke and Kelso stepped in, Thompson said they did a good job taking care of the budget and making it as fair as possible for organizations on campus.
Moreno disagreed saying, “Every term seems to be a repeat, painting over a hole in the wall instead of trying to solve the issue or build it better. I don’t necessarily see it changing.”
