Two ASWU exec members file, then abandon recommendation to remove ASWU treasurer
- Aubrey Lee, Staff Writer
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Disclaimer: The Collegian is an ASWU-funded organization. As an organization, members of The Collegian executive team are currently having funding discussions with the ASWU treasurer and treasurer-elect. These discussions remain separate from The Collegian’s journalistic coverage.
Unknown to the wider student body, two of Willamette’s three elected student government leaders recommended a removal of the third. But with the end of the school year fast approaching, this removal attempt has been abandoned.
In a closed session just before spring break, the Associated Students of Willamette University (ASWU) senate conducted an initial hearing for a trial regarding ASWU Treasurer Mitch Septoff’s (’26) possible removal from office. The senate then motioned to rehear the concern in a closed session at the next ASWU meeting after the break, originally scheduled for last Thursday.
ASWU President Stevie Bergstrom (’26) and Vice President Jay Chew (’26) initially brought forward the recommendation for removal, citing issues of timeliness and communication.
But two days after classes resumed following the break, the second closed hearing was canceled, with no plans to reschedule.
In a joint decision, Bergstrom and Chew have ended their pursuit of removal for cause.
Septoff maintains that, while he’s made mistakes in his tenure, he generally stands by the work that he’s done, and he sees a path forward to help finish the year.
Members of the ASWU executive team are the only ones who can submit a recommendation of removal for cause. Other students are only able to remove a senator or ASWU executive cabinet member through a petition for recall.
The ASWU bylaws do not provide in-depth instructions on how to carry out removal proceedings, leaving some senators with concerns about how the original trial was conducted.
“There’s not a lot of guidance” said Associate Dean of Students & Director of Student Engagement & Leadership Lisa Holliday. She added there is a lack of precedent for this kind of removal, as student petitions for recall have been the most common avenue used for the removal of an officer.
“This is a difficult time for ASWU, to have to go through something like this,” Holliday said.
The recommendation for removal
Chew said that there was no specific incident that led to the decision to pursue a removal for cause. Instead, there was a “snowball effect.”
“Nobody’s perfect. We’re not saying you can never make mistakes,” Chew said. “But there were some basic parts of the [treasurer] role that were not being carried out.”
Bergstrom agreed, “These concerns weren’t based on a single incident but patterns over time, particularly around communication, timeliness and just kind of how funding processes [were] impacting student clubs and organizations.”
Septoff has received some criticism for his handling of funding rounds, most recently in regards to pre-spring funding cuts for organizations.
“I have not been part of removal proceedings prior to this, and I am the most tenured person on ASWU,” Bergstrom said. “I think anybody on ASWU who was at that hearing can attest just that the bylaws are very vague.”
An expedited trial
A senator who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation shared that they were not notified of the closed senate session until the day before it was meant to take place. Additionally, the “ASWU group chat” was not notified that the closed session would be for removal proceedings until the day of.
As a result, Septoff had roughly seven hours to prepare a defense.
“We should have a process that's responsible and gives all parties enough time to prepare,” the unnamed senator said. The senator clarified that they “don’t have enough information to assess whether there are grounds for impeachment.”
The anonymous senator said the document accusing Septoff was “not as in-depth as many would have liked.” The senator clarified that they are “not saying exec is untrustworthy” but questioned, “If we don’t have the receipts of what happened, how are we supposed to trust the official narrative?”
ASWU Senator and Treasurer-elect Peyton Edmunds (’29) believes the timing of the trial “does not make sense” as most of the accusations brought up against Septoff were from last semester, and the “tipping point was one meeting with Hawai‘i Club in which I don’t necessarily think that Mitch violated anything in the ASWU bylaws [or] constitution.”
Chew shared that “there isn’t any language particularly looking at a timeline.” He added, “Given the vague nature of the [bylaws] … it was largely up to Stevie and I to utilize our judgment as to how exactly to put these documents into practice.”
Bergstrom clarified, “As soon as Jay and I had made that decision, we told the senators that it would be happening the next day after our senate meeting.”
Septoff responds to concerns
In response to criticisms regarding his handling of funding rounds, Septoff said, “I have made mistakes. I’ve let emails slip through the cracks. I’ve delayed sending things longer than they should have. I mismanaged my technology.” But, he added, “I pretty wholesale reject the idea that I’ve communicated inequitably, that I’ve treated any club with a special degree of disdain, and I think the principles that I hold myself to are the right ones.”
Septoff also shared, “I won’t let it rattle me or let it affect the way I’m doing the transition.”
He said that most of the “behind-the-scenes work” for the pre-fall funding round is nearly finished, “with the exception of organization funding … but I have full faith that Peyton and I will be able to handle that. There’s two of us working on it this time instead of one, which is very nice.”
Septoff ended his statement by encouraging students to become more involved in ASWU. “I think that if truly people want someone to do a better job being treasurer, what we need to see is more people running for ASWU.”
Abandoning the trial’s rehearing
Bergstrom said that the main reason for not moving forward with the removal for cause was the limited time left in the semester.
“The sentiment from some senators was that it wasn’t inherently super productive,” she said, adding, “This is something that Jay and I had wished we had acted upon maybe earlier.”
Though the removal proceedings were dropped, Chew said, “It is still valuable to sort of hold people accountable even if no action is taken.”
Prior to the cancellation of the second hearing, Edmunds brought up additional concerns about the possibility that Septoff's removal would affect the pre-fall funding round. She said if Septoff were to be removed at this time, it “would actively inconvenience everybody.” Because the senate does not convene over the summer, any potential issues with the pre-fall funding round would be hard to rectify.
Edmunds noted that if Septoff were to be removed, “he has no obligation to train me at all.” She said that “any concern that we had with Mitch [over] the last two semesters would be, like, so miniscule in comparison to what could happen if I go into this with no training whatsoever.”
Edmunds added that it is “important to recognize how unique the treasurer role is in its publicity” because the position of treasurer is the only one “where mistakes are this public and scrutinized at this level.”
In response to concerns regarding the sudden cancellation of the hearing, Bergstrom addressed the senate at its most recent meeting on April 2, saying, “We are choosing to move forward in a way that prioritizes collaboration, continuity and the work we still have ahead of us.”
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