Directors Donovan, Martin resign SA

Former Student Association director of Governmental Affairs.

By Margaret Maka & Keith Hernandez

Two Student Association directors resigned from the SA shortly after the 2015 SA executive election was decided April 1.

Governmental Affairs Director Ben Donovan resigned April 1 and Academic Affairs Director Alex Martin resigned at the end of last week, said Public Affairs Director Joe Palmer.

Donovan was the presidential candidate for the Standing for Every Student ticket in the executive election and Alex Martin was the Voice of Change campaign manager. The members of the Voice of Change ticket won every position in the election.

Donovan “cited that he wasn’t comfortable moving forward given the election results and [Martin] cited that he needed to focus on his grades, and as Academic Affairs director he probably made the best choice,” said SA President Joe Frascello.

The SA won’t replace either director position for the remainder of the semester, Frascello said.

“We would like to have our full staff,” Frascello said. “Both Ben and Alex were good directors, but personal choices sometimes outweigh your professional choices.”

Martin is a member of Phi Sigma Kappa with SA Treasurer-elect Marc Calvey and James Forman and Greg Lezon, SA Board of Election members. Martin did not respond to a request for comment.

Donovan said he does not wish to work with the SA because he doesn’t think it is concerned with accountability, referring to an upcoming SA Senate hearing in which Senator Jake Swick will face charges of giving election information to the Voice of Change ticket. Swick is a Board of Elections member and Sigma Nu member with SA President-elect Nathan Lupstein.

“At the end of the day, it seems to me from reading the bylaws and everything I know in [SA’s] procedures … in a hypothetical world where Swick is convicted of violating his role as a Board of Elections member and as a Senator … it stops there and there’s no other way to hold anybody accountable,” Donovan said.

SA Senate Speaker Dillon Domke said there would be no reason to hold anyone else accountable because there is no evidence against anyone except Swick.

“I can’t act on something that isn’t true or I can’t prove,” Domke said.

Donovan said he may run for SA Senate in the fall.