Turmoil broke out at the ASPSU Senate meeting on Feb. 28. Senator Cindy Reyes, along with three other supporting senators, made a motion to remove Leaf Zuk from his current position as the Senate Pro Tempore.
Turmoil broke out at the ASPSU Senate meeting on Feb. 28. Senator Cindy Reyes, along with three other supporting senators, made a motion to remove Leaf Zuk from his current position as the Senate Pro Tempore.
The senators cited problems with adhering to the Senate Coordinating Committee meeting bylaws, but one main reason for the motions was, according to these senators, Zuk’s “failure to facilitate open communication, a safe space and a productive working environment.”
Particular emphasis was put on the events that took place during the Senate Coordinating Committee on Feb. 20. Slated to address newly proposed executive board bylaws, the meeting took a turn for the worse as insults were thrown, leaving hurt feelings and tarnished reputations.
At the meeting, built-up tensions and personality differences mounted in what many ASPSU senators called a “bashing session” against Senator Erasmo “Mo” Ruis, causing the senator to resign as a Coordinating Committee member, and setting off a string of other grievances. Along with what some senators see as personal attacks on Ruis, the allowance of these attacks, inaccurate meeting minutes and other interpersonal tensions also emerged during the meeting.
According to the recorded minutes for the Feb. 20 meeting, Ruis entered 27 minutes tardy, exhibiting a concern allegedly expressed about him by other senators. The discussion that followed concerning Ruis’ job performance resulted in the so-called “bashing session.” Among other things, some senators allegedly expressed reservations about Ruis being their Coordinating Committee member, complained about his lack of reaching out to senators, frequent tardiness and his unwillingness to join the rest of the Coordinating Committee with functions asked of it by senators.
Senator Diamond Zerework, who was present at the meeting, described how the discussion devolved: “All of the CC members were talking about the things they did not like about this particular CC member, and it was all personal stuff,” she said.
Although the minutes do recall some of the more personal comments against Ruis, according to Zerework they leave out some of the more notable comments, specifically the character attacks against Ruis. “All of us that were present at the meeting—even some of the CC members—would agree that these words were said about not liking this member’s entire existence, his being and his personality was difficult to work with. The passive aggressiveness never stopped,” Zerework said. “It wasn’t constructive at all.” The misquoting in the minutes remains a point of contention among senators.
The controversial committee meeting minutes quote Ruis as addressing Senate Pro Tempore Leaf Zuk, who facilitated the exchange, in a manner threatening his position. “There have been several complaints about you,” Ruis purportedly said. “We are forming a group that is thinking about impeaching you, Leaf.”
In an email correspondence between senators, Ruis questioned the accuracy of the minutes. “I would like [Senator] Bear’s comment about having a problem with my entire existence and my personality reflected in the minutes of Feb. 20, 2012,” he said. “Also I don’t recall ever saying that I was forming a ‘group’ to impeach Leaf.”
Apart from accuracy issues with the minutes, Ruis’ quote in the minutes does reflect a rift between senators who see Zuk as not being suited for the pro tempore position and those who do. “When I saw how the pro temp facilitated that meeting, and I would even argue encouraged it, that’s when I said this has got to stop,” Zerework said.
The vote to remove Zuk as pro tempore failed in the senate meeting, needing a two-thirds majority. Zerework expressed that members did not necessarily expect to get that majority, but instead wanted to raise awareness. “What I wanted to do was to bring attention to this matter so that everyone can look at this position that this gentleman has and see for themselves whether he’s abusing this power,” Zerework said.
Zuk maintained that he strives to emphasize openness and communication in response to the motion to remove him from the pro tempore position and the general concerns expressed by senators like Zerework about his limiting of speech and safe space.
“I have stated numerous times that I am open to criticism, that I want to hear concerns, that I am willing to work to change, but that I won’t violate my integrity and my core beliefs are unlikely to change,” Zuk wrote in an email interview.
According to Zuk, the way that the issue was brought to the senate floor didn’t adhere to the ASPSU Constitution. “The proper method for removing an officer is impeachment, the process for which is in the constitution,” Zuk wrote. “Also, in Robert’s Rules of Order it states that officers who have fixed terms (as all of us do) may be removed only through a process akin to impeachment (RORN 11th Section 64 pp 653-54 “Removal from Office for officers with fixed terms”). Since our rules do not say that a person serves ‘a fixed term OR until their successor is elected’ the method for removal is in the next point and that is impeachment.
“It was a trial held outside the norms of a trial and that is unfortunate,” Zuk continued. “I find it ironic that they speak so much about safe space and abuse of power, yet their actions created a very unsafe space and made a strong attempt to abuse power through circumvention.”
As much as Zuk and those who see him as unfit for the pro tempore position hold diametrically opposed views on the matter of his job performance, there is some ideological overlap.
“What I want is, as the largest university in the state, as the most diverse university in the state, that all of our voices have validity,” Zerework said. “I want as much input and suggestion and constructive criticism and ultimately help in serving the greater PSU community as possible,” she added. “Collective action is what it is all about.”
Zuk echoed Zerework’s sentiment of teamwork. “I hope that we can come together, seek solutions and also recognize and respect that we won’t always agree,” he said.
ASPSU Communications Director Anthony Stine used the words “growing pains” to describe the general feeling of the executive staff on the matter. “There are 25 people in the Senate who are passionate and highly driven people. As the senators gain experience and grow as people and as a group it is expected that things like this will happen,” Stine said. “We are confident that this will be fully resolved by the end of finals week.”
Leaf is full of it. He is unethical and his claims to follow proper procedure during meetings are just lies. Ask anybody in ASPSU and they will agree with this article about him.
I don’t agree and I am an ASPSU Senator. Leaf has a challenging job and I have never seen him act this way as described by the above or the bias article written by Vanguard. The group of ASPSU Senators that started this are the ones that are creating an unsafe practice. We have the minutes to support that Leaf was not acting this way.
1) Senator, us students would greatly appreciate it if you directed your efforts towards representing us and advocating for us instead of publicly airing out your organization’s dirty laundry.
2) ASPSU has failed to make public the minutes from these meetings in question, so blame your own organization for the lack of transparency there.
The minutes are always public, all you have to do is ask for them. The minutes aren’t required to go on ASPSU web site as you would see that in the bylaws. We put them on the web site when they are ready to go up, which is a courtesy not a FAIL. ASPSU doesn’t have to. And for the the first part, I know you are frustrated with ASPSU because of past issues but I am a student as well. I spend a lot of time representing my constituency (students with disabilities) so please refrain from saying that I am not putting effort in that area, please. The dirty laundry is Vanguard airing bias articles that are not accurate, causing time to be wasted. Senators represent the students for a scholarship and nothing else and trust me, we are all trying as hard as we can to represent you and all PSU students because we believe in you. The meetings are a tiny fraction of what goes on in the ASPSU.
Read the minutes, go to the meetings, and get to know the guy. He is not an idiot. The personal attacks came from Cindy, Diamond, Amira, and Mo. NOT LEAF.
I don’t know about you guys but I’m sure glad this is what my student fees are funding!
Ah yes, “student leaders” acting more immature than anyone I encountered in high school, to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars a term. Should we just be happy there was no headbutting involved this time?
The headbutting came from the four that the vanguard is supporting. Diamond, Cindy, Amira, Mo are the immature attackers. Leaf, is the victim of their vendetta.
It is disappointing as a former member of the senate to see this body of students who are paid by our student fees focus on settling personal issues instead of working on behalf of the students they represent. As a leader, it is Leaf’s job to facilitate a safe and open work environment. If senators are bashing each other at a coordinating committee meeting then obviously he has failed to foster this safe, open environment. People skills are equally important as being knowledgeable and I feel that Leaf is very smart when it comes to rules and issues facing the University but his people skills are severely lacking. This is a wake up call to every student who attends PSU. Pay attention to what is going on around your campus, get involved or else incidents like these that waste our tuition dollars will continue to happen. People like Leaf will continue to be elected and ASPSU will continue to be the laughingstock of PSU.
SFC budget was approved, and had cuts to the ASPSU budget.
+ ASPSU $ amount in the budget is less than 1/100th (at best) of the total budget. So, get over that 75c waste if you see it that way. Also, upon further review of the minutes of the meeting on feb 20, the comments were not all personal. Quite a few were valid. Like, not holding 1 on 1’s with his senators? He wasn’t doing his job. Though i do agree that the comment by Bear was un called for, i do think that the entire issue was brought forth because Mo was caught in non-fulfillment of duties.
Regardless of the fact that you may think ASPSU’s budget is “small” it’s still several thousand dollars.
I’m not sure anybody outside of ASPSU doesn’t see it as a complete joke. How are students to expect ASPSU to take their concerns about tuition, access, and quality education seriously if ASPSU can’t even conduct themselves in a serious fashion?
Give me the dollar back per term, I’d rather keep it than let ASPSU continue to waste the university’s time and money, and further tarnish the university’s reputation.
Get your facts right buddy. ASPSU and OSA together helped cap tuition hikes at 7% per year and saved you money for these last two terms. They also registered over 5000 voters in their vote campign to rais the student voice. Also, just recently they had a meeting with Monica Rimai about the budget for the school itself. During which many senators asked her the tough qwuestions that we all want to know. How are they going to keep tuition down? How are they going to maintain proper educational service to students with cut funding from the state? They obviously knew what their constituents wanted and what questions to pose to the administration. They are fighting for you, if you think you can do it better then join up. I doubt your abilities, seeing as you seem to see only what you want to see.
I’m glad to hear ASPSU and OSA are taking credit for letting the administration roll them once again, that and the recent infighting within OSA must be why your organization has lost so much respect and clout in the legislature lately (that’s not to mention recent embarrassing events concerning your president).
I’m glad a 7% tuition increase is considered a “win” by our student representatives. Ms. Rimai and the administration ought to be laughing all the way to the farm about that one. Nothing like negotiating with self-obsessed amateurs, all while on the student’s dime.
You are an absolutely uninformed fellow. For the last few years the school has been attempting to get at least an 11% increase and they would have gotten were it not for the student representative and OSA. Also, Adam is a much better president than you could ever be, and i guarentee the events you speak of have nothing to do with his presidential abilities and are therefore inconsequential. Only reason the vanguard is putting ASPSU under fire: your editor in chief wasn’t good enough to beat Adam. Sore losers, that’s all they are. They couldn’t do it better if they tried.
The Vanguard is a waste of student money! I have herd that there budget is more than what some doctors make a year. Only if I made that much a year. The Vanguard can’t get the facts right as they never could so I wouldn’t believe this garbage. They are just mad because they can’t find any good news around PSU. They all go out to lunch, and fancy dinners on our student money, and who is wasting money? I even caught one of them paying money to get someone in trouble just for a story. My sister is with one of the Vanguard dudes and she has told me that they have vandalize PSU property and student property just for a story, WOW. Little does everyone know.
Oh and watch how long that post stays up, lol.
Your comment, corrected for grammar:
F
There are several more problems with this paragraph. Please see me after class.
I just posted a comment to this article a little bit ago and Vanguard took it down. It had no cuss words, no bad anything. It simply stated a few things the Vanguard is doing illegally. Stuff they should be in jail for, and they took it down!
I would urge you to re-post it Stu, and as un-offensive a way as possible. For i agree with what you are saying and would like other students to see their exact crimes. Y’know, aside from slander and biased writing.
The Vanguard also supports landfills and prostitution in NE Portland!
Just FYI, we moderate our comments, which is why there may be a delay between when you post and when they appear on the site (such as with your posts Stu) but we do not remove comments unless they are extremely offensive or appear to be spam/malicious code.
My husband Bearnard and I are still both suffering from the events that took place at the senate meeting where I (Leaf) was almost removed from my position. I would appreciate it if all your comments would be directed to me in person at the ASPSU office. I will gladly sit down with each of you and admit that I was in part responsible for the “bashing” session that took place on February 20.