The appointment of a city council liaison for student government has caused a great deal of controversy lately in the Student Senate.

Student Vice President for Public Affairs Daryl Jones has produced two candidates for the position that have each been rejected by the senate, and following the last refusal, Jones said that the senate was behaving unconstitutionally and refused to produce another candidate until the Student Supreme Court could render a decision on the senate’s actions in denying his appointments.

However, Joe Robbins, senate speaker, said he stands behind the senate’s decision to hold off appointing someone until the person Jones brings forth is the best candidate to represent the students to the city.

In a letter to the Daily Eastern News, Jones said that even though the decision the senate made was technically unconstitutional, he still tried to find a rationalization for why the senate rejected his candidate and he could not establish one.

“After my first appointment was denied, I made every effort to find a candidate who met the unwritten qualifications that the senate placed emphasis on,” he said.

Jones said in the letter that his second choice of Liela Morad was still rejected even though she was a candidate “who had more senate experience than any executive or senator currently serving in office, met and talked with the mayor, had relationships with the students and the residents of the town.”

Robbins said that as far as the senate is concerned, “Liela did not pass because she was not the right person for the job in the senate’s eyes.”

“There is nothing personal involved in it; as far as I could see, the senate was just voting on the information that was available to them at that time, with no personal interests at all.”

Student Body President Hugh O’Hara said the qualifications the senate has are not “unreasonable.”

“We want a person who has had a relationship with the mayor, best represents the students, and has a fairly good understanding of the Unified Development Code because that will be crucial to most of the business the city council will be conducting,” he said.

In addition, O’Hara said it would be “helpful” if the appointed person was an elected official because that “would show that person was an accepted representative of the student body.”

Robbins said the senate is not holding out for “one particular person.”

“We just want to make it clear that this position is very important to the students, especially this year, and we want someone who we know will best express the interests of the student body in the town.”