And then there were five.
The Student Union Executive Board was handed its fourth E-board resignation last Friday, with the announced leave of Executive Vice President Marshalee Ducille, a College of Arts and Sciences junior, leaving only five of its original nine members.
Ducille was recently elected to serve as executive vice president next year, as well, as a member of the incoming Real slate.
According to Ducille, part of the reason for her departure — which came from a joint decision by the incoming E-board — was to avoid impeachment, which would render her ineligible for E-board membership next year. Formal allegations were brought against Ducille early last week by School of Education senator Kyle Tobiason, an SED senior.
Citing internal strife, her proposed impeachment and the perception that she should represent blacks on campus, Ducille tendered her resignation Friday via e-mail to E-board President Jennifer Sutherland, a CAS senior.
“To be honest, I should have resigned a long time ago,” the letter read.
Ducille’s resignation lists a litany of examples of the E-board’s neglect of campus multicultural issues, a lack of attendance at campus events and personal reasons for her exit.
According to Vice President of Public Relations Dan Feder, a University Professors Program junior, Ducille exhibited some of the poorest attendance at Union meetings this year.
Ducille, however, emphasized her infrequent attendance at meetings was a deliberate boycott of practices she opposes.
“She decided she wasn’t willing to put in the time and the effort,” Feder said. “We’re not pleased with it.”
The allegations against Ducille, in the form of a 7-page writ delivered to Tribunal member Luke Donaher, a CAS senior, stated Ducille’s alleged neglect of her E-board duties, including missed Senate meetings and lagging attendance at weekly E-board meetings.
Tobiason said he was “surprised” by Ducille’s decision to leave the current Union.
“I wrote the writ to show that we feel that she didn’t do her job, and it’s because of that that problems have arisen this year and might possibly arise next year,” Tobiason said.
Ducille said because there are only three weeks left for the current Union, the allegations “are a reflection” of Union members trying to oust her from doing her job next year, “not a reflection of them trying to tell me I’m not doing my job now.”
Feder claimed to have no knowledge of the writ, and added he would have opposed impeachment proceedings against Ducille.
“I can tell you if anyone was going to try to impeach her I would have opposed it,” Feder said. “I hope no one was seriously thinking about it.”
Feder said despite the resignation, the Union will not be adversely affected. Citing progress in programs to revamp the Teaching Fellow program, Feder said this year’s Union has not been the ideal one, but has made some valuable contributions to Boston University.
Ducille spoke similarly, citing increased rape awareness as one of the major accomplishments of the year’s E-board.
However, Ducille said she often did not agree with the E-board’s platform.
“They are passionate people,” Ducille said. “But those issues are not my fight.”
Ducille asserted she would not similarly diverge from the incoming slate. Last year, she knew there was a difference in opinion among E-board members since their first meeting, she said. Eventually, as more members became dissatisfied with Union proceedings, so did Ducille. And after overseeing the resignation of three of her fellow E-board members, she wanted to follow them out.
“The Union should be a lot more than allocating money,” Ducille said. “I had a problem with the fact that it wasn’t, so I’d rather immerse myself amongst the people.”
Members of the Real slate said Ducille’s departure is not a preview of what is to come next year, but rather an affirmation of her commitment to their slate as well as her own vision.
“I can guarantee we’re not going to look at last year’s slate as a guide,” said E-board President-elect Michael Moffo, a College of Communication junior.
Members echoed Moffo’s sentiments.
“Her resignation shows all the more her commitment to what she’s about — after all this, she’s ready to do it again,” said Vice President-elect of Student Affairs Greg Chisholm.
“The only thing I felt was extraordinary pride,” said Vice President-elect of Public Relations Laurie Steinberg.
Real members will be present at tonight’s Senate meeting, which, according to Donaher, will deal with constitutional “gray matter.”
Donaher would not comment further.
Although Ducille resigned partly to avoid impeachment, it is unclear in the Union Constitution whether she is cleared of the allegations against her — a matter that will be explored further tonight.
Sutherland, the E-board president, did not return calls from The Daily Free Press.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
