SGA Exec Ehrlich Resigns, Citing Dysfunction

Dorian Ehrlich ’14, who served as Chief of Communications for the Student Government Association Executive Board, has resigned from SGA, citing the personal pressures of the position as well as objections to the style and approach of SGA operations this semester. Ehrlich has previously served on SGA as a senator and as Presidential Associate; he was elected Chief of Communications for this semester without an opponent.

In addition to personal discomfort with public speaking and voicing his opinions in meetings, Ehrlich cited the decline since he served on SGA last year in the productivity and usefulness of SGA meetings as factors in his resignation.

“What’s different now,” Ehrlich said, “is Nate Cornell’s not there anymore,” referring to last year’s SGA President, Nate Cornell ’11. Whereas under Cornell, SGA Executive Board meetings typically lasted thirty minutes, this year’s SGA, under the leadership of President Diane Essis ’12, regularly holds meetings that last nearly two hours, according to Ehrlich.

Furthermore, the extension in the length of the meetings has not resulted in greater productivity, Ehrlich said. Instead he described “heated and unproductive arguments” as a regular feature of SGA discussions, pitting the Executive Board, consisting of the President, Vice President, Chief of Communications, Chief of Finance, Parliamentarian and President Associate, against the Chairs Council and the Assembly. Dominating these meetings, Ehrlich maintained, are people “who love to hear themselves talk” and who want to “achieve their own goals and advance their own agendas.”

An example of the lack of productivity at SGA that Ehrlich named is an initiative to build a new dormitory on campus, which he characterized as a pipe dream that is “a waste of money” and well beyond SGA’s purview. Despite successful initiatives such as the ban on Chiquita bananas and the growing campaign against bottled water, Ehrlich still felt that “they weren’t accomplishing” enough.

Ehrlich had also reached out to The College Voice, writing a weekly feature for the news section describing SGA’s agenda and public meetings. According to Ehrlich, some members of the Executive Board were uncomfortable with this interaction, and in general the Board eschews public scrutiny. They “don’t want bad things written about them” and thus avoid relationships with forums like The Voice, Ehrlich said.

“Nothing should be secretive,” Ehrlich said, describing the Executive Board’s strong discomfort with the specificity of his weekly Voice column. “Why should [public meetings] be secretive?” That lack of transparency is, Ehrlich contends, part and parcel of the “bureaucratic feel to SGA this year” that he sees as an inherent problem with their current activity.

Ehrlich submitted his resignation via email to the Executive Board. He has yet to receive a formal response.

According to Edward Fisher ’12, SGA Vice President, the Executive Board will choose a replacement Chief of Communications among candidates nominated by the senators, to be approved by a two-thirds majority of the Assembly. The candidate will be decided “at our Executive Board meeting next Monday.  The candidate will be confirmed next Thursday and take office immediately.”

In the meantime, On the Can, perhaps the best known duty of the Chief of Communications, “will be written by the PR Committee in Dorian’s absence,” according to Fisher. Other duties will be performed “on an interim basis” by other SGA members until a replacement is approved.

“It wasn’t working out,” Ehrlich said of his relationship with SGA. “They thought I was doing a bad job and we just didn’t like each other. I tried to be as transparent as possible.” •