School of Engineering and Applied Science junior Emily Shaeffer became the third Undergraduate Assembly member to resign this fall when she formally stepped down from her position as an Engineering representative Monday night.
UA President and College senior Matt Amalfitano attributed her decision to resign to a shift of interests, which he recognized as “a common thing.”
“I personally commend anyone to do whatever as long as they want to better the Penn community,” he said.
Regarding the three resignations in the past month, he said that each individual has had their own reasoning for the decision.
“Students are actively evaluating what they want to get out of the year” in September, he said. “[The UA] is not unlike other groups at Penn in terms of people reevaluating their memberships.”
Shaeffer ran for UA Vice President last spring but lost to College senior Mark Pan. She did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Usually a replacement is selected by approaching the candidate with the second-highest number of votes from the spring race, but because all four Engineering students who ran for UA positions last spring got seats, the Nominations and Elections Committee will run a “special election” for the spot, NEC Vice Chairman and College junior Ben Kruger said.
The election will take place sometime in October, Kruger explained, because the NEC is currently running new student elections for the 2014 Class Board and the nine new-student UA spots, which will conclude Oct. 1 if no violations are filed.
“Ideally we would run them simultaneously, but she resigned in the middle of this cycle,” he said.
Students who were eligible to vote in last spring’s race for Engineering representatives – Engineering School students in the classes of 2011, 2012 and 2013 — make up the eligible voting body for this election.
The NEC hopes to inform students of the election using listservs, Facebook and flyering.
Amalfitano maintained that “the morale of the body is very high,” citing their recent successes and efficient meetings, thanks to the referendum last winter that created the UA Speaker position.
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