AT A SPECIAL MEETING ANNOUNCED late Monday afternoon, the ASI Senate convened and announced the resignations of President Mackee M. Mason and Executive Vice President Sandra Flores.

Neither Mason nor Flores were present at the meeting, rather, Senator Craig Parks and Senate Secretary Alex Andreotti, respectively, read Mason’s and Flores’ letters of resignation.

The Collegian recognizes the difficulty of this decision. However, we believe it is the right decision, both for the organization of ASI as a whole and for the entire student body.

In his letter of resignation, Mason asserts that since he has been in office, “ASI has made great strides for our campus through various accomplishments. In addition, we were breaking ground on issues that would make a positive impact not just for Fresno State students, but for all CSU students.”

The Collegian agrees that ASI has made, and still is making, a positive contribution to the school. In particular, we believe ASI’s “Why 1509?” campaign, a nonpartisan effort to increase voter registration among students, is especially important, as young voters are notoriously bad about turning out for elections.

These accomplishments, however, have been overshadowed by the events of the ASI retreat and the recent lawsuit filed against California State University, Fresno, Association, Inc. and ASI, which centers on these events and the subsequent dismissal of Annie Tremp.

This controversy has also served to compromise the perception of the integrity of ASI and, more fundamentally, the perception of the integrity of the institution of student government.

In the public comment portion of yesterday’s Senate meeting, graduate student Hector Cerda addressed the present ASI members and the audience and spoke.

“I spent my entire day at high schools today, talking to high school students, convincing them why they should choose Fresno State as the university of their choice,” Cerda said, Tuesday night. “And honest to God, I had to stand there and swallow my pride, in embarrassment, because of what’s happened here. This is not how you govern student government.”

The Collegian has received a similar response from a number of other people in the Fresno State community.

For the sake of moving past this and trying to restore faith in student government, the resignation of these two executives was necessary.

We understand that resignation must have been a difficult decision, but we commend Mackee Mason and Sandra Flores for making it.