by Alec Williams
In a surprising turn of events, Associated Student Government (ASG) President Josh Dillinger resigned Tuesday night, concluding a turbulent administration fraught with infighting and distrust.
ASG Chief of Staff Aden Cesmat, also formally resigned from his post on Friday following Dillinger’s exit. Dillinger’s resignation was announced Tuesday night by the ASG Supreme Court following their decision to impeach Rykel Menor, ASG’s director of external affairs.
Menor was charged with three violations and was convicted on two counts for:
- Not serving in her position as seen fit by the president.
- And disregarding her office hour requirements.
Student Body Vice President Ben Linzey was sworn in as president by the justices soon after. Dillinger was due before a Supreme Court hearing of his own where he was charged with nine ASG constitutional violations. However, Dillinger left the building following Linzey’s appointment and the prosecution continued without him.
Dillinger was found guilty of:
- Violating Menor’s right to due process.
- Violating correct procedure in Menor’s prosecution.
- Violating his responsibility to carry out the duties of the presidency.
- And violating his responsibility to enforce the ASG Constitution.
Dillinger’s punishment was a three-week suspension from holding any position in the student government. At ASG’s meeting the following night, Dillinger spoke before the senate to explain his decision to step down.
“There has been a lot going on in my life, back home and just personally, and it’s made it extremely difficult to continue,” Dillinger said. “The situation with the court was definitely difficult on me, and it added a lot, but it is not the reason that I’ve made the decision to step down.”
Dillinger originally called for Menor’s resignation in early October, citing her work ethic and absence from office hours. Despite this, Menor refused to resign, and Dillinger called upon the ASG Supreme Court to impeach her. Dillinger assigned Menor to administrative leave, a decision that landed him in hot water, and became the deciding factor of his conviction.
“The primary action [Dillinger] took that was of concern to the court was placing Ms. Menor on administrative leave before we had come to a decision as a court. […] Administrative leave is not among punishment’s listed [in the ASG Constitution] and additionally the [ASG] Supreme Court is the only entity in the government capable of enforcing such a measure,” Wonder Wachara, justice for ASG’s Supreme Court, said on Friday.
At Wednesday night’s meeting, Linzey nominated Jake Carmin, who previously served as the chairman of ASG’s Fee Allocation Committee (FAC), to assume the vacant role of vice president. Carmin had to be confirmed by the ASG Senate and narrowly earned that by winning exactly the required two-thirds majority. Carmin was sworn in by the ASG Supreme Court shortly thereafter.
Carmin had initially campaigned for that very same office with Kasey Benish as her running mate against Dillinger and Linzey the previous semester, losing by 34 votes.
ASG is due back for their first meeting of the spring semester on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017.
To read more about the events of ASG’s past, visit thecrite.com.
An in-depth story on these events will be available on CMU newsstands Tuesday, Jan. 24.
