Another one bites the dust
VUWSA women’s rights officer (WRO) Kassie Hartendorp has resigned from the executive, citing president Freemantle as one of the main reasons.
Hartendorp said that “under the leadership of Jasmine Freemantle, VUWSA has become an organisation that hinders my efforts to attain [my] goals due to the current working environment.
“I do not believe that Jasmine has been acting in a transparent or democratic fashion. As an executive member, I have felt kept in the dark where Jasmine appears to be acting of her own accord, instead of consulting, or even informing the executive of certain issues.”
Tensions between the two came to a head in the second-to-last exec meeting for the trimester (as reported on by Salient here). Hartendorp says that Freemantle’s reluctance to support the students who burnt a flag on the Mount Street Bar deck is “neglecting its [VUWSA's] basic duty of a students’ association.”
Vice President Education Freya Eng said “to my knowledge, these reports about Jasmine’s leadership style were never addressed to her in the first place.”
Vice President Welfare Seamus Brady said that Hartendorp’s letter “was exaggerated a bit” and “her involvement with the Workers’ Party might be a reason for her actions.” Brady went on to add that up until the flag burning Kassie had been doing a lot of good work.
The by-election scheduled for the first week back of the second trimester is expected to include the WRO position.
Hartendorp is the the fourth exec member to hand in her papers this year, following in the footsteps of Alex Neilson, Marika Pratley and Georgina Hart. She is the first to openly attribute the resignation to Freemantle.
Brady said “Don’t read too much into the resignations. It is interesting.”
Freemantle could not be contacted because she is currently in Nepal.
Read a copy of Kassie’s resignation letter here [pdf].
