Tuesday night’s College Council (CC) meeting ended in a contentious display, with co-presidents Lizzy Hibbard ’19 and Moisés Roman Mendoza ’19 calling on CC’s treasurer, Spencer Carrillo ’20, to resign.
The meeting began with CC approving, by a 16-3-3 vote, $34,000 for Minority Coalition (MinCo) to support heritage month events at the request of MinCo’s Steering Board, represented by co-chairs Tyler Tsay ’19 and Rodsy Modhurima ’19.
Tsay then shifted the topic to Carrillo, whose job performance was not on the meeting’s agenda. “We want to have a very honest discussion about the treasurer right now and whether he should hold this position,” Tsay said.
Then, Roman Mendoza and Hibbard shared concerns with Carrillo that they said they had received from administrators.
The majority of CC members appeared shocked and dismayed at the format in which Hibbard, Roman Mendoza, Tsay and Modhurima brought up the topic. “I think you guys bringing this up right now, when it wasn’t on the agenda, without anything written up, is really unsavory and really undemocratic,” Vice President for Student Organizations Maria Heredia ’20 said. “What was your goal in the end? To have him resign in front of all of us?”
To her second question, Roman Mendoza replied affirmatively. Carrillo responded forcefully, noting the disproportionate workload of the treasurer position compared to the rest of CC, the inherent dissatisfaction students will have with a CC member who denies them funding and the seemingly personal and aggressive nature of the process.
Others expressed confusion and frustration at the sudden nature of the process. “Being thrown all of this information is extremely confusing, and I cannot imagine how Spenny feels, or how MinCo feels,” Williams Hall Representative Nathan Medow ’22 said. “In terms of just respecting people, this should’ve been done in a better way.”
Tsay reiterated MinCo’s concerns. “My incidents in terms of the communications I’ve had with Spencer, which have been immensely inappropriate, are shared… We do not feel comfortable sending groups into FinCom [Financial Committee] because of the treasurer,” he said. Hibbard and Roman Mendoza were the only members of CC that spoke to explicitly raise concerns about Carrillo.
Many members of CC then noted how unproductive the meeting had become. “It’s like something out of The Scarlet Letter; it’s irresponsible to ambush Spenny,” Sophomore Representative Solly Kasab ’21 said.
The meeting ended with CC convening a committee, by a vote of 15-0-5, chaired by Heredia and Vice President for Community and Diversity Shane Beard ’20, to investigate Carrillo and report to CC after
Thanksgiving break.
