USU/SA makes changes to hiring board

Danielle Manley, staff writer

Recent developments with the USU Spirit Squad prompted an amendment proposed at the USU/SA Executive Council meeting Tuesday night.

Student Advocate VP Daryn Frischknecht and Public Relations and Marketing Director Casey Saxton sponsored an amendment to a previous bill. The document deals with a hiring board put together when a new adviser is chosen for the Student Involvement and Leadership office.

A  board was put together this summer to hire two new student advisers, and the original bill required five students to be on that board – all of them being part of Executive Council.

Frischknecht was approached by President Doug Fiefia to make this amendment based on his experience this summer.

“Doug asked me,” Frischknecht said. “He said we needed to change this… This summer, there weren’t enough officers in Logan.”

The council also saw it beneficial to have members of the specific organization being dealt with to be involved.

“So if we needed to hire someone over Greeks, it would be beneficial to have Greeks on that hiring board,” Frischknecht said.

The amendment changed the requirement to let non-Executive Council members on the hiring board.

The bill passed quickly with little discussion. Nobody voted against the change.

“We’re just changing it a little bit to evolve with the times,” Frischknecht said.

The USU Spirit Squad adviser of three years Jennifer Hollingsworth turned in her letter of resignation Wednesday Oct. 16.

In a statement, Vice President for Student Services James Morales said Hollingsworth loved the sport and coached with great passion.

“It is very difficult for me to express the range of emotions surrounding the events of the last few weeks,” Hollingsworth said. “When we hear that someone has resigned from a position, it is assumed that they have made a choice to no longer continue with that position. Most likely it was a long, hard, thought-out process that took many aspects into considerations. My resignation did not happen this way.”

Hollingsworth said there were meetings held without her presence and when there was a meeting with her, Morales validated the students instead of encouraging a compromise.

When she was told she would be put on administrative leave, Hollingsworth quickly resigned.

It’s expected to take up to three months to hire a new adviser. Director of Student Involvement Linda Zimmerman is serving as the interim head coach during the hiring process.

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Twitter: @daniellekmanley