On Sunday night, Wharton senior and Undergraduate Assembly Treasurer Ryan Houston announced his resignation at the UA’s first meeting of the year.
Houston’s resignation comes a week after a petition to impeach the treasurer was signed by more than one-third of UA members, according to College senior and UA member Mo Shahin.
Although the petition was never formally presented to the Nominations and Elections Committee, Houston mentioned the possibility of his impeachment when he addressed the UA body.
“A small minority can disrupt the entire budget by moving for debate on impeachment,” he said, reiterating that his “primary concern is not to have this position for the position’s sake, but rather to serve [his] fellow students.”
Houston was due to present his plan to allocate the UA’s $1.9 million budget to the UA body on Feb. 13. His resignation also follows a contentious two weeks in Penn Student Government.
On Jan. 13, the Student Activities Council voted to institute a temporary moratorium to prevent recognizing and funding new student groups because of SAC’s financial situation.
Houston has been criticized by members of the UA for declining a seat on the SAC Executive body last November — a position assigned to the UA Treasurer, according to the UA Constitution.
“Despite my full confidence that these grievances are without merit, I must put aside my desire to make my own case in favor of keeping this budget on track,” he said.
College senior and former SAC chairwoman Ali Huberlie, who is a member of the UA, commended Houston’s decision.
“I understand and support Ryan’s decision to avoid the political maelstrom that an impeachment, or even a possible impeachment, would cause, because such a process would put this crucially important budget at risk,” Huberlie said in an e-mail.
However, Huberlie expressed concern over appointing a less experienced treasurer so close to the budget allocation process.
Members of the UA executive board agreed and wrote in an e-mail that “removing [Houston’s] expertise from this post so soon before the budget process leaves the UA, and the other five branches of student government, in a challenging position.”
“Regrettably, a determined minority with an axe to grind has seen fit to put their own agendas above the interests of all students precisely at this critical time,” Houston said.
The UA plans to internally elect a new Treasurer at its next meeting, according to UA speaker G.J. Melendez-Torres, a Wharton and Nursing senior.
The UA executive board also wrote that they “will continue to support our budget committee in all facets of budgetary work in the meantime to deliver the best possible budget for our peer student government groups.”
Although more than a third of UA members signed the petition to impeach Houston, according to Shahin, some UA members were disappointed with his resignation.
Houston “has been an integral part of the positive work the UA has done over the past three years, and it is without question that his talents and insights will be sorely missed,” College senior and UA Speaker Pro Tempore Grant Dubler wrote in an e-mail. “I have always considered Ryan to be both a hard-working colleague and a true friend whose integrity is beyond reproach.”
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