Aaron Wiessing, the executive vice president of the student government, will resign from his position on Friday.

Wiessing met with the executive board Monday to announce his resignation although he will still officially have the position until Friday. He will officially announce his resignation at the student government meeting on Wednesday.

“I feel if there is any part of the student body that doesn’t feel that I am not doing my part then I shouldn’t get a tuition wavier,” Wiessing said.

Legislation was brought up to remove Wiessing from the position from six senators. Zachary Samples, James Patton, Holly Henry, Rebecca Johnson, John Poshepny, and Roberto Luna signed the legislation stating that Wiessing was not doing the job that is laid out in the student bylaws.

The legislation states that Wiessing did not “uphold his duties as laid out in the Eastern Illinois University Student Action Team Bylaws,” “uphold his duties as laid out in the Eastern Illinois University Student Body Constitution,” nor “uphold his duties as laid out in the Eastern Illinois University Student Senate Bill 08-09-01 ‘Student Lobbying Act Amendments’.”

Wiessing said part of the responsibilities of the executive vice president is to come up with ways to lobby issues concerning Eastern. This includes lobbying at least once every semester in Springfield.

This semester, the Student Action Team did not lobby in Springfield.

“I fully admit that the lobbying thing should have happened,” Wiessing said.

Wiessing also said the money did not get approved because the executive board was not approached beforehand, which is in the student bylaws.

However, Wiessing said, “The executives are not governed by the bylaws.”

He said they follow their own set of rules so this did not apply to him.

Another issue against Wiessing was his involvement with the Student Action Team. This is the group involved in lobbying that Wiessing was head of.

“I chose to not have them as a functioning group,” he said.

Wiessing said this was because there are only three people on the committee, as no one had signed up for the position. To be on the Student Action Team, the executive vice president first had to appoint people to the group and then the senate had to approve them.

Student Body President Michelle Murphy said that while Wiessing did make some mistakes, it should not have amounted to an impeachment.

“There are a lot less dramatic steps to take to light a fire under someone,” Murphy said.

Murphy said many of the senators that signed the legislation did not completely understand what they were doing.

“A lot of people don’t understand the gravity of the situation,” Murphy said.

Wiessing said he is not resigning because of the impeachment legislation.

He said he did not want to have a conflict in the senate and rather have the time be spent on something else.

“I’m not the kind of guy that likes conflict,” he said.

Speaker of the Senate Jason Sandidge was shocked to hear about Wiessing resigning.

“I think he did his job very well,” Sandidge said.

Sandidge said Wiessing was the person on campus qualified for the position and that the lobbying effort on campus will take a hit because of this.

In order to fill the position, Murphy will have to appoint someone to the position.

“It is going to be very hard to find someone to take this position,” Wiessing said.

Wiessing said he would not be disappearing, as he will still serve on the Board of Trustees for the time being as it is a student appointed position.

“Until I graduate, I will continue to serve the university any way I can,” he said.

Wiessing also said he will still be a part of the Student Government and he will attend some of the meetings as a student.

“I’ll never be done,” he said. “I’ll never be away from Student Government.”

Courtney Bruner can be reached at

581-2812 or [email protected]