Despite losing the Dec. 7 runoff election to Sarah Shaw, Keith Darby has officially submitted his application for appointment to the Student Senate in the wake of his resignation from the Apportionment Board.

His resignation inadvertently avoided a potential conflict of interest, which is stated in the AB bylaws. If he had won election, or if he becomes appointed to the senate, he would have been making financial allocation decisions pertaining to the senate while being a beneficiary of those allocations.

“I was very surprised that he resigned and is now running for appointment to student government, just from the fact that his letter said he wouldn’t have enough time for the Apportionment Board this semester,” said Leah Pietraszewski, chairwoman of AB. “As someone who sits on student government as well, (I know) that student government takes up more time than Apportionment Board would and I’m shocked at his decision considering his reason.”

As the senate’s Vice President for Business Affairs, it’s Pietraszewski’s responsibility to chair AB and contribute without a vote. However, AB Advisor Ted Hart said Darby was not in conflict, yet, and no action would have been taken until a senator position was awarded.

Darby plans to participate with the senate by becoming a non-voting member of a committee even if he is not appointed to the senate.

He submitted the application on Tuesday and Speaker of the Senate Megan Ogulnick confirmed receiving it, and that she is adding him to the list of interviewees to meet with.

Although Hart has not been informed of Darby’s resignation, the letter was given to Pietraszewski before the Dec. 7 runoff election.

“Keith has been on the Apportionment Board for a couple of years and he’s a very (important) part who brings experience,” Hart said. “We have several experienced Apportionment Board members and his experience will be missed.”

Now applying for appointment to the senate for the fourth time in two years, Darby said he’s always had an aspiration to be a senator during his nearly two years on AB.

“When I was running for appointment, I always notified the chair(person) that I would be resigning if I were appointed,” Darby said.

“It was understood that if he did win senate, that he would unfortunately resign from AB,” Pietraszewski said. “He is very familiar with the bylaws.”

AB is consists of 15 members, in which eight students and three appointed faculty members vote. There are four ex-officio non-voting members as well, in which some of them are from the Student Senate.

As chairwoman, Pietraszewski will now attempt to replace Darby before AB’s first meeting on Thursday and was accepting applications until Wednesday.

Ogulnick said she will decide who to appoint for Senate by Thursday, and the appointed senators will be sworn in during the Jan. 23 meeting.

Rick Kambic may be reached at 581-7945 or at rwkambic@eiu.edu.