The end of the Inter-Residence Hall Association’s final meeting of the semester found the organization with a new president and vice president, but missing a full cabinet for the upcoming academic year.

IRHA President Paul Duncan and Vice President Dave Boike passed the gavel to president-elect Keith Twombley and vice president-elect Jessi Raim at the end of Thursday’s meeting. The shift in leadership came after several hours of discussion regarding Hawthorn Court residents being seated on IRHA’s cabinet, as well as three other proposals.

IRHA parliament voted against changing bylaws to allow Hawthorn Court residents to serve on the IRHA cabinet. Twombley’s new cabinet initially included Annette Barbato as director of finance, Heather Minish as director of conferences, Mark Klein as director of information technology and Kate Rasing as secretary.

The parliament approved only Barbato and Minish for Twombley’s cabinet, however. Klein and Rasing were not voted onto the new cabinet because they will not live in the residence halls in the fall.

Boike said this is a violation of the bylaws that require IRHA members to live in the residence halls.

Twombley said he will go through the application and interviewing process again in the fall and will have to take on the responsibilities of secretary and director of information technology himself this summer.

Jeff Greiner, UDA president, said similar situations have occurred before, and holding on to hope that Hawthorn Court would join IRHA in the future would be foolish. “It’s an absolutely horrid idea to suspend the bylaws,” Greiner said.

Twombley said Klein and Rasing were the best candidates for the positions. “We can’t get any of my campaign promises off the ground without these people,” Twombley said.

Raim said someone needs to reach out to Hawthorn Court residents, and IRHA has the potential to begin that process. “Both slates talked about improving communication with [Hawthorn Court], and I think this is the first step,” Raim said.

Although Klein and Rasing may not live in the residence halls, they can still perform the required duties, Twombley said.

“I understand parliament’s hesitation, but the very first thing we do can’t be to question such a minor detail,” Twombley said. “They are students just like us; they deal with the Department of Residence just like us. Why should we harm ourselves by not being the best team?”

Klein, who will live in Hawthorn Court in the fall, said he understands where parliament members were coming from.

“I don’t think I’d move back to the residence halls just to be a part of IRHA,” Klein said.

“When I applied I wasn’t completely sure where I was going to be living. I knew you had to live in the residence halls, but since it was a bylaw I knew it could be waived,” he said.

In other IRHA news:

Members discussed for more than an hour whether students should fund a bid to host the 2004 National Association of College and University Residence Halls Conference at Iowa State.

The proposed $8,000 to host the conference was cut in half. Members approved the $4,000 with a vote of 13-3 and five abstentions.

During a recess, however, Duncan vetoed the bill, saying spending the money would be beneficial to the residence hall students as a whole.

Greiner said Duncan’s decision was “incredibly unethical and immoral,” and said the conference would have been a wonderful opportunity for ISU students to improve leadership skills.

A proposal to eliminate the position of director of academic affairs was not passed. Members voted instead to alter the position to make it more efficient.

A proposal was approved to remove the bylaw stating students running for director of conferences meet a prerequisite of attending a conference prior to applying. However, an amendment was added to the constitution requiring the director to attend the next upcoming conference.