Undergraduate Student Government Vice President of Academic Affairs John Mele has resigned from the position, Mele confirmed via email.
Mele declined to provide a comment. Although he did not offer an explanation as to why he resigned, The Statesman obtained a document titled “Impeachment of VP of Academic Affairs Mele Act of 2017,” which accused Mele of failing to complete his duties as VP of Academic Affairs.
“One of the senators on the bill contacted him ahead of time and told him if he didn’t resign that we would move forward with this,” John Scalamandre, College of Business senator and vice chair of the budget and grant committee, said.
The act was presented by Scalamandre, College of Arts and Sciences Senator and Vice Chair of the Special Services Council Committee Amanda Tam, and CAS Senator Nicholas Vollano. They allege that Mele did not attend Executive Council meetings, host University and Academic Affairs Committee meetings, provide committee agendas or have the required number of office hours.
“Over the course of the year, we felt he didn’t do his duties as VP,” Scalamandre said. “He’s supposed to pick a project for the year something related to academics, and nothing really came from his office this year.”
The measure was also sponsored by Senior Class Senator Jonathan Rodriguez and CAS Senator Tasnia Ahmed. The impeachment act was never brought to the floor at the weekly USG meeting on Thursday as Mele had already resigned.
R.Parks • May 29, 2017 at 11:26 am
The lack of transparency continues from year to year. No USG budget posted and that falls on the oversight of the organization. So who is responsible for that? The Executive Director! Every year a new VP of Communications gets to play around with the USG website and every year there is less transparency. The webpage is not user friendly and fails to provide up to date information.