By Shawn Ness | February 12, 2024
Director of Programming and Marketing Caleb Sapp facetiously collapsed when Senator Jac Cooper formally announced his resignation in SA’s weekly meeting.
Photo Credit: Shawn Ness / The ASP
Student Association Chair on Constituent Relations Jeremy Zheng resigned his post on Thursday after SA’s weekly Wednesday meeting.
“Given much consideration, I have decided that I will be resigning from my position as a Senator,” Zheng said in a DM to the ASP on Instagram. “I am lacking the mental capacity to continue my work as a Senator. I would like to focus on my other responsibilities on campus that also includes my class work.”
Zheng added that he wished everyone well.
The resignation comes after Caleb Sapp, the Director of Programming and Marketing, called Zheng out by name in his committee report on Wednesday in which he said he would be severing all relations with the committee on future event planning.
Sapp’s commentary was related to an event Sapp hosted to promote SA special elections in the Empire Commons Community Building, in which he got minimal help from his fellow Senators, including Zheng who helped set up for the event.
“I was met with behavior from Chair Zheng that was both disrespectful to my efforts and to my position as Programming and Marketing director. His conduct, particularly in front of Executive Branch members, did not align with the collaborative spirit I strived for,” Sapp said in his address.
In response to Sapp’s comments, Zheng said that he had to leave the event early because he “barely have time to myself with the amount of student orgs that I am involved in, as well as homework I have to do.”
Zheng went on to call Sapp’s comments “unprofessional” for not bringing the issues to him in private.
He added, “If you think that I did a terrible job as the Chair of Constituent Relations, I will gladly resign from this position.”
Sapp said that after the event, Zheng commented that it was hard to carry all his materials back to the office alone.
When asked if his resignation had anything to do with Sapp’s comments, Zheng simply said “No comment.”
Sapp said in a statement to the ASP regarding Zheng’s resignation that the move was in an effort to dodge “accountability and improvement.”
When Zheng announced his resignation in an Executive Senate meeting, one that Sapp was present for, Sapp wrote that his abrupt departure from the meeting “felt like a disregard for our sincere conversation the night before [with Vice Chair Sarah Jamil]. This act left me not only uninformed in real-time but also underscored a missed opportunity for a respectful closure to our dialogue and collaboration challenges.”
Last week’s meeting saw Rules and Administration Chair Michael Regatiero, and Appropriations Committee Chair Jac Cooper resign their positions. Senate Chair Erin McGrath now has three important spots to fill in the coming semester.