Bishop responds to resignations
By MEGHANNE DOWNES
Associate News Editor
Student Body President Libby Bishop said the resignation of her chief of staff Pat Hallahan came after she questioned his trust and ability to accurately represent the views of her office.
Hallahan, a candidate for student body president, said Thursday he resigned solely due to differences with Bishop, particularly on the dance issue. Bishop said Hallahan's decision to make his resignation a public issue disappointed her because his resignation was a result of several factors, including the amount of time he dedicated to her office this semester and his decision to speak out against her view at last week's Senate meeting about hall dance policy.
At a Feb. 3 Senate meeting, Hallahan provided information that Bishop had not provided to senators regarding the University's stance to not reconsider restoring in-hall dances within the next two to three years and made suggestions as to what course of action the Senate could take to voice its opinion on in-hall dances.
Senate passed a resolution directing Bishop to include a proposal to reinstate in-hall dances for a probationary period of one year following Hallahan's comments.
Bishop said Sunday that his comments, which were the opposite of what she said her office was trying to accomplish, made her question whether he understood his role of chief of staff. "It wasn't just his public disagreement but the tone of his comment — unsupportive would be an understatement and it was unsupportive of the office's strategy," she said.
Hallahan said Sunday his comments at the Feb. 3 Senate meeting were not said in an unsupportive tone and that he made the comments as a point of information for senators.
"She may say that it was disloyal but I would say that it was dishonest that she did not inform senators," said Hallahan.
Bishop said it was not a conscious decision not to inform senators of the administrators' decision. She said Hallahan should have expressed his comments privately to remain professional and not expressed them in a public Senate meeting.
Bishop said she met with Hallahan after the Senate meeting because she was surprised by his comments and, because they had previously discussed their views about hall dances, she was unaware of the depth of his opposing opinion.
With regard to Hallahan's time commitment to Bishop's office, Hallahan said he informed Bishop when he decided to run for student body president his first priority was to the Office of the Student Body President and he would work other commitments around this schedule.
Bishop, however, disagreed. "When lines of campaign issues and working as chief of staff come in conflict that's when we have a problem," she said. The role of the chief of staff is to run the daily operations of the office, act as the student body president's primary representative, coordinate projects and motivate members of the staff.
Trip Foley, student body vice president, said Hallahan's resignation was due to ongoing frustration between Hallahan and Bishop that escalated at the Feb. 3 Senate meeting. Foley declined to comment on what the ongoing frustrations were.
Foley said the timing of Hallahan's resignation was not politically motivated and occurred because Bishop informed a staff member of Hallahan's resignation before a final decision had been made.
Hallahan said, "If it was politically motivated than it would have been coming a long time ago and my resignation would have come Monday night after I stood up for students' rights against her view. I don't think this is helping me politically."
Another member of Bishop's staff, Erin LaRuffa, director of public relations, said she resigned Sunday due to the handling of Hallahan's resignation. LaRuffa, who worked on Hallahan's campaign, said she and Bishop talked Sunday about the comments she made in Friday's Observer regarding Hallahan's resignation and whether she could still represent her office as director of public relations. LaRuffa decided to resign following their discussion.
"I didn't think I could serve her in a public relations role anymore because I disagreed so strongly with the direction that the office was going in," LaRuffa said.
Bishop said she didn't believe LaRuffa needed to resign at that point. She expected to meet with LaRuffa again Monday to discuss the issue.
All News Stories for Tuesday, February 11, 2003
