Lara Santana (SFS ’24) announced her resignation in a letter sent to GUSA senate and executive leadership, including GUSA President Nile Blass (COL ’22) on Feb. 14. Santana cited a hostile work environment, ongoing restructuring efforts and internal reforms, and decline in student advocacy efforts as reasons for her resignation. 

Santana said GUSA’s culture no longer made her feel comfortable in the organization. 

“I cannot stay in an organization that continues perpetuating the same oppressive and toxic behaviors it claims to want to eradicate,” Santana wrote in the letter. 

The controversy surrounding the 2022 GUSA executive elections pushed her to resign, according to Santana. 

“It was absolutely disgusting to see how far people would go to ensure that their favorite ticket would win,” Santana said in an interview with The Hoya. “To be honest, I think everything about this election just kept demonstrating how broken GUSA has gotten. I said that in my letter, and I meant it just because all the meetings were absolutely extended long fighting debates.” 

At a Feb. 13 GUSA senate meeting, senators debated for over two hours on whether to certify the win of GUSA presidential elect Kole Wolfe (SFS ’24) and vice-presidential elect Zeke Ume-Ukeje (COL ’24) after the ticket was accused of exchanging alcohol for votes. The senate ultimately decided to certify the results of the election on a vote of 21 in favor, 3 against and 1 abstaining. Santana was not present at the meeting. 

GUSA Senate Speaker Leo Rassieur (COL ’23) said he regrets seeing Santana’s departure from the organization. 

“Senator Santana did a great job in her role, and I’m sorry to see her go,” Rassieur told The Hoya. 

The GUSA Senate will continue to investigate the allegations surrounding the election of Wolfe and Ume-Ukeje, according to Rassieur.  

“There are a lot of students who are concerned with very valid accusations and allegations that the newly elected executive may have seriously violated campaigning roles, and I think that’s something that GUSA is going to take a closer look at moving forward,” Rassieur said “I don’t think anyone who, for example, was trading alcohol for votes should be representing the student body.”

Issues in GUSA arsie from a decline of civility within the organization, according to GUSA Senator Dominic Gordon (SFS ’24), who accepted Santana’s resignation. 

“We get candidates that openly act hostile to the election commission. There’s just the lack of seriousness,” Dominic said in an interview with The Hoya. “We control a million-dollar budget. We don’t need to act like senators all the time, but we do need to ask for some decorum.”

GUSA has strayed from student advocacy to an organization entangled in internal affairs, according to Santana. 

“It’s been months since anything’s been getting done. They spent so many months doing the whole abolish GUSA and that went nowhere,” Santana said. “The proposal was absolutely incomplete, it was not properly written, or properly detailed, and a big part of that is also as time has progressed, they stalled everyone’s projects.”

A referendum that would restructure GUSA, including abolishing the senate, in attempts to promote increased student advocacy on campus failed to pass in the fall 2021 semester after too few students participated in the November election. 

Reform attempts are essential to promoting student advocacy in GUSA, according to Rassieur. 

“I think the internal reforms and changes go totally hand-in-hand with helping us to better respond to student needs and making GUSA run smoothly,” Rassieur said. “The whole idea is that we want to cut out some of the bureaucracy and red tape that makes it difficult for students to participate in GUSA and advocate for their needs.” 

This is not the first time a GUSA senator has resigned from the senate. In 2020, a senator resigned citing a toxic and unsupportive working environment.  

Santana said GUSA must undergo fundamental, institutional change beyond internal restructuring attempts. 

“I think what needs to happen is a whole new election of new senators, not just the consecutive people that consecutively destroy and destroy and destroy this institution further and further,” Santana said. “They issue blanket statements that they’re trying to, quote, revamp it, and that’s nowhere true.”