In Rene Lilly’s opinion, she’s still the chairman of the Student Committee On Political Action. In Paula Radtke’s opinion, she isn’t.

It could be that the leadership of SCOPA has changed hands for the third time this semester. But then again, maybe not.

Student Association President Paula Radtke said at the Student Association senate’s meeting Sunday night that she had requested and accepted the resignation of Rene Lilly, who was SCOPA chairman up to Friday.

“That’s not true. She’s lying,” Lilly said.

Lilly, who did not attend the senate meeting, said later Sunday that she did not step down from her position and that Radtke had simply asked her to resign Thursday. Lilly added that she and Radtke agreed to discuss the matter Sunday, but did not.

Radtke could not be reached for comment late Sunday, but said in the senate meeting that Lilly “had problems with leadership and adhering to policies we all agreed on. SCOPA needs a strong chairman. Rene can’t provide that right now. It was appropriate that she be relieved of her chair.”

“I was supposed to talk to her before she said that,” Lilly said. “She said Thursday that we had ‘betrayed the senate’ by posting the fliers. I think that’s ridiculous.”

Lilly was referring to fliers posted by SCOPA last week that advertised a speech presented by Chief Justice William Rehnquist. The fliers featured captions such as “I hate abortion” and “I love the death penalty” written above a photo of Rehnquist. Radtke said the fliers “topped things off” regarding her request that Lilly step down as SCOPA chairman.

Senate Speaker Joe Annunzio said he asked Radtke if she had received Lilly’s resignation in writing, and Radtke responded that she had not. He added Radtke said she would “take Rene out of the position” if she did not resign herself.

Radtke said Lilly “broke (SA) public relations rules” by posting the fliers without showing them to the SA Public Relations Committee chairman. In addition to the fliers, Radtke said SCOPA members painted a Huskie bus with “derogatory words” in preparation for SCOPA’s voter awareness festival Oct. 14.

“Rene promised me that wouldn’t happen. These kinds of things make it difficult for me to have trust in the (SCOPA) chair.” Radtke said. “I’ve had some problems working with Rene before. Sometimes I think she was swayed by (SCOPA) members to break policies.”

Lilly said, “It sounds like she has a problem with free expression. Students should be responsible to themselves and not to a group that limits free expression.”