The meeting adjourned at 7:30 a.m. Friday, Association Director Kara Spencer said.

Steve Marino, who previously sat on Student Assembly as the vice-chairperson for external affairs, was elected to the position of chairman of General Assembly.

He defeated Zachary Taylor, the previous internal vice-chairman and interim-chairman for Academic Assembly. Taylor was elected to the position of ASMSU provost.

Taking the position of vice-chairperson of finance and operations — which is responsible for overseeing the funding committee and supervising the service departments, such as student defenders and the iClicker program — was Chris Schotten, the prior chairman of Student Assembly.

Jeff Fowler, who previously served as the comptroller of funding board, was elected to become the board’s chairman. Funding board is responsible for funding individual projects of registered student organizations.

The position of chairman of funding board went to Emmanuel Williams, who previously represented the College of Arts and Letters. Programming board oversees budgetary allocations for student programming and events for all university students.

The position of secretary was not filled at last night’s election. The assembly will meet again at 7 p.m. Friday to elect a secretary.

Prior to the election, some representatives raised questions of whether Marino had violated the ASMSU constitution by allocating money in a manner inconsistent with ASMSU governing documents.

Robert Vankirk, the representative for the Campus Interfaith Council, called for the assembly to remove Marino on the grounds he had allocated money to various charities and student groups without the assembly’s permission.

A chair or vice-chair of ASMSU can be recalled if the assembly votes in favor of his or her removal with a 2/3 majority.

“Financial mismanagement can lead to our funds being frozen,” Vankirk said during the meeting. “If I was the university and I saw this — and we didn’t do anything — I’d freeze our accounts, because you don’t hold anyone accountable.”

Marino argued that as long as he allocates money within his budget line, he is allowed to move money around between more specific expenditures, such as the legislative programs or community dinner budget.

He said because the ASMSU comptroller approved all expenditures, those allocations couldn’t be in violation of the constitution.

“The comptroller is there to ensure we are following our code and our constitution,” Marino said.
Ultimately, the assembly did not achieve the necessary majority to recall Marino. Six representatives voted in favor his dismissal, while 18 representatives were against it, with one abstention.