Former President Adamson blames resignation on opposition from Senate

SGA+president+Mitchell+Adamson+concludes+The+State+of+the+Student+Body+following+his+and+Speaker+of+the+Senate+John+Kirks+speech.

Mia Hennen / The Sunflower

SGA president Mitchell Adamson concludes The State of the Student Body following his and Speaker of the Senate John Kirk’s speech.

Former SGA President Mitchell Adamson blamed his resignation on opposition with senators over his conservative values. Adamson was in office for 24 days.

Adamson took the role of student body president after Olivia Gallegos resigned on the first day of the fall semester.

Adamson said in his resignation letter that he wishes SGA the best. Later, in an email to the Sunflower, he said that the Senate did not like him or Gallegos.

“They voted against our nominees, and distrusted us in conversations,” Adamson said via email.

Via email, Adamson said he and Gallegos received opposition due to their conservative beliefs and that senators voted against Gallegos and his nominees. But out of Adamson’s three nominees, the Senate voted to confirm all of them. However, Gallegos’ nomination for treasurer, Austin Rea, was rejected.

However, in an email to The Sunflower, Gallegos denies these claims.

“During my time in office I did not receive backlash for my personal beliefs and did not experience the same tension he claims existed during my presidency,” Gallegos said, via email.

John Kirk, former speaker of the Senate, who became president after Adamson’s departure, said he didn’t notice any tension between SGA senators and Adamson.

“It’s only been three meetings [with Adamson as president],” Kirk said. “There wasn’t, to my knowledge, any tension.”

Annie Wasinger, at-large senator who ran as a write-in candidate for vice president last spring, said that she did feel a tension between some senators and Adamson.

“I think that I can’t speak for you know, anyone else, but I did notice there at times were tension,” Wasinger said.

Wasinger said that people came up to her after Adamson and Kirk’s State of the Student Body Address, discussing some of the comments that Adamson had made in his speech related to his Christian beliefs.

“I personally never witnessed any kind of like prejudice against his conservative beliefs,” Wasinger said. “I didn’t exactly think that was the most appropriate time to be sharing those things, as the State of the Student Body is about the student body and not about … personal religious beliefs.”

After the SGA meeting on Wednesday evening, a handful of senators were asked about Mitchell’s resignation but chose not to comment.

Jade Warden, a fine-arts senator, said she did notice tension when Adamson was president.

“I guess there has been some type of tension,” Warden said. “I just don’t feel like it was long enough to really find that super comfortability … I guess just not being able to connect with him long enough to understand if what he was doing was right.”

This story has been updated from a previous version.