Former Vice President for Administration Okey Udumaga, who is running for his old position in elections beginning tomorrow, offered his resignation from his position last week under pressure from fellow members of the executive board of Student Council, according to Council President Jequeatta Upton.
Udumaga, who is running again for VPA in the upcoming elections, maintained he was not asked to leave his position as VPA but instead personally decided to resign upon realizing he was overcommitted.
Upton said members of Council's executive board met with Udumaga last fall after he failed to complete a task in a timely manner and told him that he had a history of similar performance issues. They warned him that if improvements were not made, more serious action might be required.
The situation came to a head in January when Upton said she received a letter over Winter Break from an advertiser requesting an invoice for an advertisement included in the Hook Book, a publication Udumaga was responsible for producing over the summer of 2005. Among his expected duties in completing the project was collecting advertising revenue.
According to Student Council financial records, $80 of the $5980 that was owed by advertisers had been collected by the end of 2005. The Hook Book was distributed in September. It was this failure to send out invoices for the Hook Book that prompted discussion of impeachment or resignation. Ultimately Udumaga was approached by the executive board and given the option of resigning or being impeached, Upton said.
"It is unfortunate that Okey was unable to fulfill his term," Upton said. "But because of his performance, in the long run it was best that he resigned. Working with him and the executive board, we believe that resignation provides the best benefits for all parties involved."
On the other hand, Udumaga claimed that he was in no way forced to leave office and that he left on his own volition because of various commitments to academic and other activities.
"There were no ill feelings in terms of why I resigned -- there was no force," Udumaga said. "I wasn't forced out. There have been allegations of that, and that's not the case."
Udumaga added that it was his decision to leave office when it became clear he had too many obligations and did not wish to perform in a "sub-par" manner. He said he approached the executive body to express his desire to resign and encountered a "cordial situation."
"The allegations that I was forced out I don't believe to be true, and I know it wasn't true because I was there," Udumaga said.
Other sources within Student Council have indicated that Udumaga was asked to resign.
As VPA, Udumaga said he was charged with the task of producing the Hook Book and distributing it to University first-years. Most of the work was to be completed during the summer, over which time he received a stipend of $1,800 from the University to support himself as he took a class and worked on this project.
While no specific deadline was set for the Hook Book, Udumaga said he "definitely worked extremely hard over the summer, especially towards the end, to make sure the Hook Book would be completed and released in a reasonable time."
After having to send back copies for printer corrections, Udumaga said the finished product was completed and distributed "in a fairly reasonable amount of time" during the first couple weeks of school.
Upton said while there was no set deadline for publication, she made Udumaga aware of her desire to distribute the Hook Book in August when new students arrived on Grounds. She added that the project could have been completed in a "more timely manner."
After distributing the Hook Book, Udumaga said the main task he faced concerned financial matters -- collecting checks from advertisers and sending out invoices, the bulk of which was set to be completed by the end of first semester.
When concerns about the invoices came to the attention of Upton, Udumaga worked with Council's administrative assistant to resend invoices. The records indicate that $1,460 has been collected since those efforts began.
"We expected some delays because it happened in previous years from what I heard," Udumaga said. "We wanted to have a good amount of money and a majority of invoices sent by end of first semester. We had some delays and for this semester, from when I left office, there were still companies left to send in checks, though I can't quite exactly remember which ones."
Council Chief Financial Officer Scott Haahr said he was under the impression that everything related to billing for the Hook Book had been taken care of in the first semester.
Upton said Udumaga told the executive board that some of the invoices had been sent out by the end of January.
Udumaga said there were delays in businesses sending their checks and invoices being mailed out. He attributed some of these delays to having incorrect mailing addresses and having items get lost in the mail, while also admitting some of the delays were partly his fault.
"I did a decent job of trying to get the payments for the Hook Book," Udumaga said. "There were delays, and they were on some part my fault, but there were some things that were uncontrollable on the part of the businesses, in the process of sending invoices and receiving of payments."
He added that he felt he did the best he could do during the time he held office, he has learned from past mistakes and he now knows of improvements that can be implemented if he is re-elected.
"Of course there are improvements to be made, but that's one of the reasons I'm running again -- to make things more efficient," Udumaga said.
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