The Student Government Association meeting Monday night ended with the appointment of one new congress member.
SGA voted on whether or not to approve former Congressman Danny Zydel and newcomer Christina Ashworth, both appointed by President Jeanette Morelan, meant to fill two empty congressional seats.
While congress voted unanimously to approve Ashworth, Zydel’s appointment failed to pass by a vote of 24-7. Several of the representatives expressed concern over the question of Zydel’s appointment before the vote.
“The biggest thing was his record from freshman year,” said Congressman Cole Thannisch.
Zydel made fun of several student organizations seeking grant petitions when he was a congressman, Thannisch said.
Congress members were also concerned over Zydel’s actions during last semester’s presidential election, said Congressman Braden Stover. Zydel organized a word-of-mouth write-in campaign against then-candidates Morelan and Skyler Schmanski. Although Morelan and Schmanski won the election anyway, it was by a slim majority thanks to Zydel’s campaign.
“The main concern I had with the appointment, was that the candidate did not run in the spring election, nor the fall election. I think the first people we need to look at for an appointment should be those who applied and went through the election process,” Stover said in an emailed statement to the Vision.
Zydel said he will respect congress’ decision, but felt that “personal bias on the parts of returning congress members played too much of a role in the decision making process.”