Ciaramella appointment denied
CJ Ciaramella’s appointment to the ASUO Senate failed Wednesday after the Oregon Commentator editor responded to concerns he would not take the position seriously by trimming his facial hair in the style of Wilford Brimley and reciting Barack Obama’s inaugural address before the Senate.
Not one senator voted to appoint Ciaramella to the empty seat representing the journalism school after a hearing that forced one spectator to leave the EMU Board Room clutching his mouth to stifle his laughter and several Senators unable to restrain grins.
Several senators also decried hiring process through which ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz chose his appointment. Three candidates applied for the position, but Ciaramella was the only one who did not agree to a job interview. ASUO Adviser Consuela Perez-Jefferis, a member of the committee, said it recommended a different candidate to Dotters-Katz.
ASUO Vice President Johnny Delashaw said Dotters-Katz made his decision after Senate President Alex McCafferty, who also sat on the hiring committee, told him neither of the applicants interviewed was adequate to sit on the Senate. McCafferty was absent from the meeting. Senate Vice President Emma Kallaway said he was ill.
Ciaramella refused to definitively answer questions about whether he wanted to be on the Senate in the first place.
“I do want to be on Senate,” Ciaramella said. “But sometimes it hurts me inside.”
Ciaramella said he was attempting to represent journalism students, whom he said “have a black sense of humor.” When Sen. Sandy Weintraub read the letter in which Ciaramella accused senators of being “nominally more intelligent than a trained circus bear,” many senators laughed openly. Afterwards, however, Sen. Hailey Sheldon told Ciaramella she could not vote for him.
“I personally love irony–,” she began before Ciaramella cut her off.
“I don’t actually like irony,” Ciaramella insisted.
Sens. Weintraub and Cassie Gray said Ciaramella’s use of Obama’s speech offended them.
“Maybe your constituents think that’s funny, but I don’t think that’s funny,” Gray said.
The closing notice sounded over the EMU intercom just a minute after Ciaramella’s appointment was denied, two hours later than the scheduled end of the meeting. Senators encouraged him to reapply through the proper process in a way that showed he was serious.
“You represent an underrepresented viewpoint,” Sen. Nick Schultz told Ciaramella.
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The Senate also voted turning the meeting to give the University Survival Center $4,851 to attend an environmental conference in Washington, D.C., despite of Delashaw’s announcement that Dotters-Katz intended to veto the decision. He said the Survival Center had already gotten money to attend a different conference and the that the figure was “arbitrary.” Senators narrowly approved the request despite Delashaw’s objections.
“We shouldn’t be bullied by it,” Weintraub said.
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Comments
[...] attempted appointment of CJ to the senate. Alex Tomchak has a good summary of the Senate meeting on his blog. Several senators also decried hiring process through which ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz chose [...]
[...] I was voted down 0-12-2. I’ll let ODE reporter and blogger Alex “Tomcat” Tomchak take it from here: CJ Ciaramella’s appointment to the ASUO Senate failed Wednesday after the Oregon Commentator [...]
Aw Shucks. That killed my buzz.