By Jon Parton
Awista Sherzada has stepped down from the office of Student Senate president. Bruna Iacuzzi, the senate vice-president, agreed to take over the position.
This marks the second consecutive year an elected president has resigned from office before the start of the semester. Last year, President-elect Corey P
aris opted to vacate the position after deciding to attend another college.
Sherzada could not be reached for comment. In an interview with The Campus Ledger last semester, Sherzada said she was excited to be the new president.
Mindy Kinnaman, Student Senate adviser, said she received Sherzada’s resignation a few weeks before the start of the semester. Kinnaman said Sherzada’s resignation is not unusual.
“It’s actually quite common for officers to step down,” Kinnaman said. “We usually have at least one officer every year that has to, for some reason or another, resign from the Senate.”
In the event that the president resigns, the Student Senate’s constitution states that the vice-president has the option to step up and assume responsibilities of the presidency.
If the vice-president chooses not to accept, nominations will be accepted for the position with the stipulation that nominees be previously-elected Executive Board members.
According to Kinnaman, the office of vice-president will be available to existing Student Senate officers. If more than one officer is nominated for the office, or if no officers are nominated, a new election will be held to determine who will take over as the new vice-president.
“Everything is spelled out in the Student Senate constitution,” Kinnaman said.
Iacuzzi said she was initially startled by the news, as she was in Italy at the time she heard about Sherzada stepping down.
“Well, I was surprised,” Iacuzzi said. “I was really excited to work with Awista. I didn’t expect it.”
Iacuzzi said she hopes to accomplish a lot during her tenure in order to help the student body.
“We are excited to continue things like trick-or-treat for kids, and ‘JCCC Gives,’” Iacuzzi said. “We had a successful town hall meeting on the smoking ban last semester and we hope to have more of them this year.”
Iacuzzi also said that she hopes to help inform students about safety and services the college provides.
“I want to let the students how we can help them,” Iacuzzi said. “I want to promote security at the college, to let students know how to be safe. For instance, I want students to know that campus security is willing to walk them out to their cars at night.”
Although Iacuzzi did not expect to start off the semester as president, she said she is excited and ready to start.
“I really care about Johnson County,” Iacuzzi said. “I wasn’t expecting her to step down but I’m ready to do it.”
Contact Jon Parton, managing editor, at jparton@jccc.edu.
Hi Jon,
Your article states “Sherzada could not be reached for comment.” That’s strange because I certainly do not recall you or anyone from the Ledger trying to reach out to me. It must have not been a priority or an important detail for an article titled, “Student Senate President-Elect Steps Down.”
Persistent much?
Anyway, there are no hard feelings on my end. I’m just saying!
I hope you and the rest of the of the Campus Ledger crew have a fantastic school year! I will be picking up the papers. 🙂
Best,
Awista
P.S. Pardon my sarcasm. As a journalist, I am sure you can appreciate a little sense of humor. :p
Hello, Awista,
As I’m sure you know, FERPA policy prevents Mindy Kinnaman or Bruna Iacuzzi from directly giving your contact information to The Ledger, so in this case the reporter did what he could to attempt to give you a chance to comment (Iacuzzi’s email address has been censored to protect her privacy):
Apparently this is simply an issue of miscommunication, but if you desire to go on the record and explain to the student body why you chose to step down from the position, The Ledger would be more than willing to publish an additional article or add updates to this one.
Thank you, and please get in touch with me or Jon Parton if you do wish to explain your resignation.
-Mackenzie Clark, editor-in-chief
mclark68@jccc.edu
Hi Mackenzie, I was actually not aware of the FERPA policy. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding!