Eric Chan, a University of Colorado senior elected to the Arts and Sciences Student Government board on Friday, forfeited his seat over the weekend in order to apply for a paid position with a campus organization that’s funded by the student government.
His seat will be filled by the next-highest vote-getter, junior Gregory Carlson.
Chan, a 21-year-old accounting and psychology major, said he’s applying to be the webmaster for CU’s Student Outreach Retention Center for Equity (SORCE). Holding both positions would have been a conflict of interest, he said.
“I was not able to fill both positions because they’re both part of the (University of Colorado Student Union),” Chan said Monday.
Carlson, a 20-year-old majoring in mathematics, economics and political science, will fill Chan’s seat. He received the sixth-highest number of votes out of the seven candidates for five ASSG board positions, said UCSU Election Commissioner Alex Schnell.
“I was very excited and surprised to hear the news,” Carlson said. He said his main priority will be to analyze the ASSG budget line by line “to find waste and ways to better utilize dollars.”
The ASSG board doles out money for events and organizations related to CU’s College of Arts and Sciences, the largest college at the 30,000-student university.
Two ASSG representatives also serve as co-senators on the UCSU Legislative Council, which oversees a $34 million budget that funds CU programs and several major facilities, including the University Memorial Center and the Recreation Center.
The other candidates elected to one-year terms on the ASSG board are Alyssa Bamonti, Kevin Michael John, Pranav Reddy and Midori Tran. None have served on the board before.
Five students were also elected to serve one-year terms as representatives-at-large on the Legislative Council: incumbents Rebecca Aguilar, Sanket Merchant, Blaine Pellicore and Will Taylor, and newcomer Hunter Barnett.
The new student government assumes office Thursday, Schnell said.
