An under-fire student representative has finally been formally asked to resign by the Otago University Students' Association.
The association’s political representative Jett Groshinski was to receive a letter from the association seeking his resignation either last night or today, student president Liam White told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
If Mr Groshinski still refused to resign after being asked to in writing — he had so far declined a verbal request to step down — the association was not sure what its next move would be, Mr White said.
Mr Groshinski was asked to resign after a recent internal review of conduct and responsibilities found conflicts of interest relating to his position as a Labour-endorsed council candidate had not been effectively managed.
Mr Groshinski refused to resign, arguing the responsibilities that presented a conflict of interest had been delegated to other executive members.
Mr White said the association had mostly exhausted its constitutional options to remove Mr Groshinski from the executive.
It could hold a special general meeting and make a vote of confidence in him but he was not sure what it would do going forward.
He could not remember an instance where and executive member had been asked to step down and they did not.
If the vote was successful, Mr Groshinski would be stripped of the role.
Mr Groshinski was told at an association executive meeting on August 28 that a motion asking for his resignation had passed, he had not received anything in writing.
Mr Groshinski said yesterday the process of asking him to step down had been "pretty confusing".
He had expected to get the letter asking him to resign immediately.
It had been a bit tense working with the executive but Mr Groshinski had every intention of continuing to do his job.
It was hard for him to believe his Labour-endorsed council run was the reason he was asked to be resign.
Instead, he believed it was because he put forward a petition supported by Otago University Staff for Palestine, to re-adopt OUSA’s boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) policy for products and businesses associated with Israel's war in Gaza.
He put it forward on August 11 and said Mr White told him the next day he was "compelled by the executive" to ask him to resign.
He stood by the further decision to host a student general meeting (SGM) about the BDS boycott.
"It’s clearly about the SGM," Mr Groshinski said.
Mr Groshinski said he had received a lot of support for taking a firm stance on the movement.
"I've been stopped in the supermarket recently and just stopped on the street by people pretty much saying ‘good job on what you did’.
"I think it was the right move."
He said he had every intention to declare his run for council to the executive but had been advised to wait until its next meeting to do it.
In hindsight, he could have waited for the meeting to happen before he declared his run for council, he said.
The next executive meeting will be on Thursday. Mr Groshinski will be present.
He planned on taking BDS co-ordinator Brandon Johnstone with him to answer any of the executive’s questions about the movement.
