Sometimes campaign promises don't work out exactly as planned and sometimes they don't work out at all.
During Student Assembly elections last year, candidates capitalized on a surge of student dissatisfaction by promising an Assembly that would help the students rather than push personal political agendas.
President Nicole Artzer '94 and a group of 15 Assembly members called Reform SA! won on just such platforms.
But now that fall has come, the Assembly finds itself embroiled in some of the worst political in-fighting in recent history.
And though it seems the worst may have passed, the Assembly still is missing half of its executive body, and Artzer must figure out how to deal with Reform SA! which dominates the general Assembly and seems set on tripping Artzer up.
The agendas of the president and Reform SA! are, for the most part, the same. But some members of Reform SA! feel slighted by Artzer and say she should pay more attention to their group.
As a result, Artzer's executive committee and, ultimately, her hold on the Assembly could be in jeopardy.
In her Spring term campaign, Artzer said she was banking on an executive committee of various student leaders, such as the Panhellenic Council President and various class presidents to make her vision of the Assembly a reality.
Of the 10 executive committee appointments Artzer made, only one of them was a member of Reform SA!
Shortly afterward she was warned to pay more heed to the group. Her appointments were challenged as unconstitutional at the first general Assembly meeting and by last Sunday it was clear she would not have a free hand in the Assembly.
A special committee on procedure -- proposed by Reform SA! member Grant Bosse '94 -- voided seven of Artzer's 10 executive appointments.
"I disagreed with her appointing people outside of the Assembly," Bosse said. "I'm disappointed that Nicole ignored the results of the election."
"Communication was very poor in the beginning of the term, but it seems to be getting better," Reform SA! member Matthew Berry '94 said. "We can work together. We must work together."
Artzer said any tension between her and Reform SA! members is rapidly diminishing. "It was a silly start for those who advocated change ... but I don't think there's anything to be worried about," she said.
There still is a chance she will be forced into giving up some of those appointments altogether.
The executive committee -- made up of the president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and co-chairs of the Assembly's five committees -- decides what issues the Assembly should address.
Her appointments were found unconstitutional because the students were not elected members of the Assembly.
Now, Artzer is hoping her executive appointments can sail through the process of joining the Assembly -- attending three meetings and turning in an application to the nominations committee.
She is already running into trouble. The members still need to go to at least another meeting next Tuesday, and go through a five member nomination committee --meaning it could take another week before the executive committee is fully functional.
Three of five people on the nominations committee are Reform SA! members --Berry, John Steiner '94 and Brook Brightly '95.
Steiner, who is also the Assembly treasurer, said he thinks some members of Reform SA! are upset with Artzer's handling of the executive committee.
He said angry students might be appeased if Artzer were to replace several members of her executive committee with members of Reform SA!.
Steiner said he would have liked to see Artzer pick more students from the group elected last year. But he would not comment on whether the nominations committee plans to sabotage some of her appointments.
Artzer said she anticipated no problems with the nominations process.
"Each of the nomination committee members will have to remind themselves they are judging each of those people on merit and commitment to the Assembly," she said.
The actions of Assembly members the last two weeks have been counterproductive, Junior Class President Tim Rodenberger said. "All these things seem to do is waste time here," he said.
Rodenberger is one of the executive committee members who was voided.
He said students are wondering when the Assembly will begin to change. "The feedback I'm getting is 'What's going on? This isn't what the people promised last year,'" he said.
Artzer told the Assembly on Tuesday it was time to stop bickering and time to start working on helping students.
"You ran on a campaign to represent the student body -- that's what your responsibility is," she said Tuesday. "Keep that in mind."
But now Berry said Reform SA! will start moving on its own agenda. He said Artzer came into the Assembly with good ideas but without a tangible plan.
"We're on the same page of the playbook, and we'll start producing wonderful things soon," Berry said.
This year's Assembly is different than last year because there is a strong block of voters in the general Assembly who can thwart presidential moves, Berry said.
And Berry said this type of change takes time to set in.
"We're switching from issues of personality to an agenda that students will like," Berry said. "We were in the transitional stages for the last two weeks," he said.
He said he does not think the crippled executive committee will significantly hamper progress.
"It's not the best thing, but our agenda does not require for there to be an executive committee right now," he said.
Rodenberger said when freshman and new members join the Assembly, Reform SA! will not have as much power. "They are definitely going to be a force all year though," he said.
