2008 Woodie Awards
Itami resigns from Ambassadors over policy conflict
Tyler Doyle
Issue date: 2/15/06 Section: News
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ASISU Presidential Candidate Todd Itami resigned from his position on the Ambassadors due to a policy conflict. Itami says he does not agree with how the Ambassadors organization is operated, and he had to move on.
Itami has been at ISU for three years and has been an Ambassador since he started. Before he quit, he held the position of co-coordinator.
As co-coordinator, Itami helped plan retreats for the members, built a soapbox car to compete in the campus derby and also gave campus tours to visitors.
"Last year my roommate and I were the number one and two tour-givers. I was number two; he was number one," he said.
Although the group is a good experience, it has its share of problems, Itami said.
Last Semester, Itami approached the governing board with a concern that they were in violation of ISU club policies.
The governing board is made up of five students and three advisers, Itami said. Each member of the board has a vote in what the Ambassadors do. Itami says this is where the problem is. According to the ISU clubs policy, the advisers are allowed their input, but they are not allowed a vote.
"The group is the only one on campus that has advisers in a position to vote," Itami said.
But when Itami presented his case to the governing board, the board voted against removing the advisers.
Graham Garner, Interim Director of Development at the ISU Foundation and adviser to the Ambassadors, says he did not believe the board was in violation.
"In the meeting, he never cited that," Garner said.
The club is the only club on campus that advisers are allowed to vote on because it is funded by more than just ASISU funding, Garner says.
In addition to the $9,400 that the club gets each semester, it also receives funds from the Alumni Association and Enrollment Planning, Garner said. Both groups employ the services of the Ambassadors on the campus. And if the advisers were not on the board, they would not be able to have a say in where their money goes, Garner says.
"If they don't have a vote on the board about their money, why fund our program?" Garner said.
Itami says he could agree with the advisers staying on the board but only if the funding was not from students.