One day after Student Body President Noah Riner '06 delivered a controversial Convocation speech invoking Jesus, the Student Assembly's Vice President for Student Life Kaelin Goulet '07 severed all ties with the organization.
Goulet, a Riner appointee, announced her resignation Thursday to several other Assembly executives.
"I consider his choice of topic for the Convocation speech reprehensible and an abuse of power," Goulet wrote in a BlitzMail message obtained by The Dartmouth, to which she attached the text of her resignation letter.
"Your first opportunity to represent Student Assembly to the incoming freshmen was appalling," Goulet wrote to Riner. "You embarrass the organization; you embarrass yourself."
Goulet told fellow executives in her BlitzMail message that she had cut all involvement with the Assembly.
"I had been looking forward to working with you all and thought we were in agreement for what SA stands for," Goulet wrote. "Apparently, I was incorrect."
"Frankly, I guess I misunderstood the aims of this body, and I will not stay on to help clean up for the mistakes of Assembly leadership," she added.
Goulet declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding her departure.
"At Noah's request and out of respect for the Student Assembly's agenda, I would rather not comment on my decision to disassociate myself from the organization," she said.
Riner's speech to incoming freshmen, which prompted Goulet's exit, made several references to Jesus as a good example of character.
"He gave his life for our sin so that we wouldn't have to bear the penalty of the law; so we could see love," Riner said in his remarks. "The problem is me; the solution is God's love: Jesus on the cross, for us."
In Goulet's letter to Riner, which included a transcript of the speech on which she had written her own comments, Goulet said, "I pity the freshmen in Leede Arena yesterday, and I empathize with the alienation many of them must of felt."
Riner declined to comment on the events.
Riner explained his remarks earlier in an interview with The Dartmouth on Wednesday, saying that he "wasn't setting an agenda" for the Assembly and that the intent of his speech was to "give other people the opportunity to examine their own perspectives and to add those to the Dartmouth dialogue."
Executive board members also declined comment, citing Riner's request that they not answer questions.
Other Assembly members said they had not heard about Goulet's resignation.
"I don't even know what to say -- I'm surprised," Julia Hecht '08 said.
Assembly member Tim Andreadis '07 defended Riner's right to make his remarks but thought he should be "held accountable" for them because they were inappropriate and because Riner, he claimed, did not clearly label his religiously charged comments as reflecting his own beliefs.
"I don't think it is very good for Student Assembly to begin its year with a ghastly speech by the individual who is supposed to represent the student body," Andreadis said. "I think it only looks worse if a valued member of SA quits in response to it."
Adam Shpeen '07 said he disagreed with the content of Riner's speech but admired "the courage and audacity [Riner] displayed in voicing a controversial but heartfelt belief."
Shpeen compared Riner's remarks to those of former two-term Student Body President Janos Marton '04, who discussed his views of national drug laws.
