Some former student government officials are questioning the credibility of ASMSU after one employee was forced out of her position.

ASMSU is MSU's undergraduate student government.

Em Ketterer resigned as Director of Racial Ethnic and Progressive Student Affairs after Jessica Kunnath was removed from the position of ASMSU's association director.

Ketterer is returning to ASMSU as a Women's Council Representative.

During a Sept. 21 ASMSU meeting, Ketterer explained why she chose to quit.

"I can't work for an association that I feel is dishonest," Ketterer said.

Over the summer, Kunnath's position as association director, which is a position within Central Staff — consisting of people who work for both ASMSU assemblies — was changed from reporting to both assemblies as a whole to reporting to just the Student and Academic assemblies' chairpersons.

Kunnath was approved by Academic Assembly but not Student Assembly, which forced her to leave the position.

Candidates must meet approval from both assemblies to remain in their positions.

Any position that isn't decided through an election process must also be approved by the policy committee — a committee within Student Assembly, said Julielyn Gibbons, external chairperson for ASMSU. Candidates who are hired have to go before the policy committee and their supervisors and answer a series of questions about their positions and why they feel they should be part of ASMSU.

Because the meetings dealt with employees and their positions, they were closed to the public, and information about Kunnath and other employees who went through the re-interview process could not be given out, Gibbons said.

Students who apply to work for ASMSU are interviewed by hiring committees and then selected for employment. However, their positions are not approved until the fall semester, said Roger Ludy, chairperson of Student Assembly.

"In my estimation, we followed the procedure we're required to do, and I think that the policy committee has been increasing their involvement," Ludy said.

Bills are written about the position and employees by the director of human resources or someone on the hiring committee. These bills to approve employee positions are voted on by the entire assembly, Kunnath said.

"In previous years the (bills) were passed under consent by staff, so it was usually no problem," Kunnath said. "However, Student Assembly sent the bills to policy committee."

There were other employees who were pushed to the policy committee for approval through re-interviewing, Ketterer said. One of those employees was not approved and removed from their position along with Kunnath. That employee could not be reached for comment.

"In previous years since, the application process was long and thorough, and Student Assembly trusted the hiring process, so they would pass everyone and place (the bill) on consent," Ketterer said.

During policy committees, the employees were re-interviewed and asked a series of questions about their positions, Kunnath said.

"It was an attack against Central Staff," Kunnath said. "They were trying to take away some of their power, and we have people who are supposed to be experts in these fields. They never gave these people a chance to shine."

The Central Staff had been underutilized, Kunnath said. The human resources director and a hiring committee make the decisions about who enters the office.

"I didn't agree when the steering committee moved to put the chairs as my boss, especially because of the lack of representation on the steering committee during the summer," she said.

Ludy said the changes had nothing to do with individuals; he felt there needed to be changes in the structure, he said.

"I was one of the people who introduced that particular change," Ludy said. "The senior-most staff person on the Central Staff is the association director, and at times the Central Staff tends to end up functioning independently at times. That is to say that projects that are directed by the assembly or steering committee were falling through the cracks."

However, Gibbons said changing the association director's position was unproductive for the assembly.

"I think it creates a lot more internal bureaucracy and slows down the process of getting things accomplished and getting paperwork through," Gibbons said.