President Lindsay St. Hill’s leadership was called into question April 27 during an Associated Students of DVC meeting that erupted into angry shouting, walk-outs and tears.

Secretary Alicia Fambrini leveled a fiery list of criticism against St. Hill before walking out of the meeting in protest of St. Hill’s “destructive leadership style.”

“You [St. Hill] have managed to belittle your executives, talk crap about board members, make snide remarks and fail to follow your own rules that you set, thus making you a hypocrite,” Fambrini said. “You consistently interrupt board members, violate the free speech of the public and of board members and you are also incredibly biased in making decisions.”

A few board members and members of the public clapped and knocked their fists against the tables in approval as Fambrini ended her speech and urged other board members to leave the room in protest. No one did, although board members Brian Donovan and Daija Cornelious left the meeting briefly to show support before returning.

The next outburst occurred after Cornelious announced a change of plans in a task assigned to a committee she chairs.

Instead of writing a single letter to college President Judy Walters defending student services against budget cuts, the committee would submit numerous letters following a letter writing campaign at a three-day long Cinco de Mayo event endorsed by her committee.

St. Hill reacted by dissolving the committee.

Letting loose a barrage of swear words, Cornelious demanded to know how St. Hill could dissolve a committee she herself never attended.

“She is the one who is supposed to lead us, and she doesn’t do shit in here,” Cornelious said of St. Hill. “She don’t even come to a damn meeting, and she’s our president.”

Cornelious then stormed out of the meeting and did not return.

St. Hill apologized for the outburst and said she was wished the two had been able to handle the problem outside of the meeting.

“I’m just trying to do my job,” St Hill said tearfully. “This is a volunteer position, I’m not paid to be here, I’m here to help the students.”

Katerina Schreck, newly elected ASDVC president, asked St. Hill to reconsider dissolving the Student Services Ad Hoc Committee and instead make her the chair, since she too is a member of the committee.

St. Hill agreed to make Schreck chair saying, “I feel Daija [Cornelious] is too emotional to resume her duties.”

But she changed Schreck’s title to co-chair after Ben Pradya, vice president of executive affairs, and ASDVC adviser Adriana Lopez said it would be improper since Cornelious never officially resigned from the position.

“If [Cornelious] says no or does not respond by Saturday I will remove her,” St. Hill said.

In a later interview with The Inquirer Cornelious said she would not agree to co-chair the committee with Schreck and wants to continue as the sole chair.

She said she thought about giving up her position as minority affairs officer-elect, but reconsidered because St. Hill will not be on the executive board next year.

Cornelious said she met with Bill Oye, dean of student life, after Tuesday’s meeting to discuss her outburst and he excused her from all ASDVC meetings for the rest of the semester.

She said she plans to attend the May 4 ASDVC meeting to apologize to the board for her outburst.

Contact Ariel Messman-Rucker at [email protected]