Residents of Hawthorn Court, the new apartment-style, university living complex, must decide next fall if they want to join the Inter-Residence Hall Association.

With President-elect Tom Plagge and Vice President-elect Chris Benson both planning to live in the complex next year, some IRHA members have speculated about the possible repercussions if residents decide not to be a part of IRHA.

Both Plagge, junior in computer engineering, and Benson, junior in animal science, have said that if Hawthorn Court residents decline to join IRHA, they would both resign before parliament members are forced to draw up articles of impeachment against them.

“The reason is that we’d hate to see something like that set in motion,” Plagge said.

Plagge and Benson won the IRHA executive positions in a run-off election held April 6. They garnered 61.7 percent of the vote.

Current IRHA Vice President Jeff Greiner said if Hawthorn Court residents decide not to join IRHA, the director of finance would assume the position of president since both Plagge and Benson would have to step down.

“Once the director of finance is president, it would be up to that person to fill the rest of the vacancies. If this happens, naturally it will be a big nuisance, but that’s the way things should happen if they resign,” Greiner said.

Plagge and Benson noted that this situation is unique because the living options have always been only Richardson Court Association, Towers Residence Association or Union Drive Association.

Under the recommendation of current IRHA President David Sims, Plagge and Benson said they will go to the students of Hawthorn Court immediately to encourage them to form a student government.

Sims said he did not agree with the pair’s decision to move to Hawthorn, and he said he talked to them about it before the elections.

“I disapprove that they think a particular place of residence is more important instead of a student government position,” Sims said. “There’s going to be people on parliament that won’t stand for it.”

Sims said that if Plagge and Benson must resign, it will damage IRHA’s growth since the resignation would come at the beginning of next year.

“The transition following that would hinder the advancement of IRHA,” Sims said.

Plagge said he thought it was unfair of students to question their plans because they both feel that Hawthorn Court should not be left out of student government.

“To say that our motives are suspicious is pretty unfair,” Plagge said. “Without student government [in Hawthorn Court], it’s going to be awfully hard to get the word out.”

Plagge and Benson said they will continue to push for a student government in Hawthorn Court because they said it would be in the best interests of residents.

“Our emphasis is that it is up to the students whether or not to be a part of IRHA,” Plagge said.

Benson said he didn’t know whether Hawthorn Court residents would vote to be a part of IRHA.

“It’s hard to speculate what the atmosphere out there will be like,” he said.

However, Plagge said he believed most parliament members would agree that it would be more helpful for students to have their opinions voiced to university administrative leaders through IRHA.

“A lot of people on parliament feel that the residents of Hawthorn Court would be best represented by IRHA,” Benson said. “If you don’t have a representative, you wouldn’t be able to present things you need to the Department of Residence.”