Three elected UVSS directors-at-large resigned their positions two months early on Feb. 25 at a board meeting not listed in the regular schedule. Tribesty Nguyen, one of the directors who resigned, received 1 576 votes back in March 2012, more than any other director-at-large candidate who ran concurrently.
“The board isn’t healthy for me right now,” said Nguyen. He feels his time is not best spent in active board participation at this time.
Justin Fontaine, elected by 1 474 votes, and Andrew Fortune, elected by 1 445 votes, were the other two directors to step down last Monday. Fortune was not present when the board accepted his resignation, and Fontaine declined comment. Society for Students with a Disability (SSD) representative Leah Grantham also recently left her position on the board. That vacancy has been filled by an emergency hire of the SSD, Pamela Savage, but with Executive Director of Finance and Operations Ariel Tseng on unpaid leave, the board is still down four members.
“I thought that it wasn’t the right type of advocacy for me. I think that it takes a special kind of talent to thrive in that particular type of student advocacy,” says Grantham. She feels she’s more the type of advocate to be outside protesting with a sandwich board than sitting in meetings getting things done bureaucratically.
Chairperson Emily Rogers says she’s disappointed to see board members step down but recognizes that personal well-being must be prioritized. “Given the complexity and weight of the issues that we deal with on a daily basis,” says Rogers, “being on the board can be incredibly taxing on one’s emotional, physical and mental resources. I support the decisions of the directors and am grateful for what they have contributed over the last 10 months.”
Campaigning for positions on the 2013–2014 board of directors is currently underway, with webvote polls opening March 6.
To read a full description of Nguyen’s reasons for resigning, click here.
