The Asian Student Union and Asian Leaders Council hosted a town hall meeting Sunday to discuss a letter of no confidence in ASU’s president written by the other members of the executive board.
ASU President Kevin Cao announced he will take a one month leave of absence at the meeting.
In the letter, board members discussed frustration surrounding a lack of transparency, accountability and communication within the organization.
The biggest concerns were about Cao, a third-year College student, and his effectiveness as a leader.
The letter said that Cao left unforeseen work to board and council chairs but still took credit for projects. It also said that he was sent over 72 emails regarding the Outreach committee he is tasked with overseeing, but there was “no indication he attempted to respond to these time-sensitive emails."
ASU executive board members are elected by the 13 presidents of ASU's constituent organizations.
Each has individual goals as to how the organization should run, Cao said in an emailed statement.
"Conflict often arises when different members come in with different ideas on how to best carry out the goals of the organization. What can result is a disjointed vision," Cao said. "It's a work in progress. We've come a long way and still have a long road ahead of us."
The meeting Sunday was held to address the concerns highlighted in the ASU executive members' letter as well as brainstorm solutions moving forward, ASU Advisor Gloria Roh said.
In a statement, the letter's authors said they aimed to start a discussion and constructively address issues facing the board.
"We are asking for more transparent actions and accountability from our leaders and are hopeful these concerns can be addressed as a community," the statement said.
At the meeting, Cao said he would take a one month leave of absence after which a decision would be made regarding his continued role in ASU, Roh said.
This type of leave of absence is not currently written into ASU’s constitution.
"[ALC exec] will be talking about if they will add [ability to take a leave of absence] to the Constitution, if he can take that leave of absence, who gets to decide if he can go and who gets to decide if he can come back," Roh said.
There has not yet been any restructuring of the ASU executive board. The meeting was the first of many steps to determine what should be done next, but did not provide much consensus or productivity, Roh said.
"Not all of the ASU organizations were present at the meeting — about half of them were there — and then only half of that half were actively speaking up, so it's hard to say everyone was on the same page," Roh said.
Source: Kevin Cao
Source: Kevin Cao
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