ACE chair resigns

canceled due to instability within the Grinnell community, such as the death of a student and on-campus harassment of students of color.

Moving into spring 2023, SGA and DSA began to discuss more seriously the creation of a programming board. The motivation to plan for the programming board came from concerns from both Terry and DSA about SGA holding too much power over on-campus student events. Terry cited the controversy surrounding Jungle Harris, an event approved by the 2020 ACE chair, whose theme was changed after students raised concerns about harmful racial implications, and the influence of certain student organizations within SGA as examples of SGA mishandling their power in the past.

Ramirez said that prior to winter break, Smith-Benanti referenced future changes to programming, but Ramirez was not aware that following the establishment of a programming board, her job responsibilities as ACE chair would no longer include planning student events. When returning to her position at the beginning of spring 2023, DSA informed her that if a programming board were to be created, her responsibility as ACE chair would instead cover only security measures.

Following this conversation with DSA, Ramirez resigned from her position as ACE chair, feel- ing that she could no longer carry out her duty to represent the Grinnell student body. “I realized that my position had become obsolete in programming,” said Ramirez.

On Feb. 4, Ramirez sent out an email to over 400 Grinnell students, providing her perspective of the programming board as well as a timeline of the events that led to her resignation. In this email, as well as in her interview with the S&B, Ramirez made it clear that she had no intention to directly attack any members of SGA or DSA.