SUA President Alfredo Gama Salmeron has been removed from office.

Gama Salmeron’s removal comes as a result of a petition launched on Oct. 19 by SUA Executive Officers Dora Rasch, Jimmy Gomez, Mitra Zarinebaf, and Amalia Bostian. An email sent to the undergraduate body on Oct. 26 by the Dean of Students on behalf of the four officers confirmed the news. 

Any SUA executive officer may be removed from office through either a three-fourths majority vote by the SUA in the presence of quorum or through a petition of the student body signed by at least five percent of current registered undergraduate students.

The petition was a result of failed attempts by Rasch, Gomez, Zarinebaf, and Bostian to remove Gama Salmeron as SUA President through a three-fourths SUA vote. At the first SUA meeting of the year on Oct. 18, Gama Salmeron denied every attempted motion to remove him under his new powers as SUA Parliamentarian, the officer who schedules and chairs SUA meetings. He stepped into the position after firing the body’s previously appointed parliamentarian, Amanda Pepe. 

The petition was authenticated by UC Santa Cruz’s Institutional Research, Assessment, and Policy Studies unit (IRAPS), the office that confirms and verifies signatures of petitions and verifies results of campus elections in spring quarter. With 17,566 currently enrolled undergraduate students, 879 valid undergraduate signatures were needed to activate the recall. 

According to the count by IRAPS, and adjusting for duplicate signatures, non-enrolled students, and non-student email addresses, at least 1,044 valid signatures were collected..  

A counter-petition by Gama Salmeron launched on Oct. 20 seeks to remove Rasch, Gomez, Zarinebaf, and Bostian from office. Despite his removal from office, Gama Salmeron’s petition to remove Rasch, Gomez, Zarinebaf, and Bostian remains active as of Oct. 26. The amount of signatures it has collected is not publicly known.

Per the SUA Constitution, Internal Vice President Jimmy Gomez assumes the role of Acting SUA President. With Gama Salmeron’s removal, previous SUA Parliamentarian Amanda Pepe will resume her role immediately. The next steps regarding the filling of the SUA President position will occur at the next SUA meeting, with multiple potential pathways toward finding a replacement. 

The SUA’s next scheduled meeting is to be determined and will be announced to the public with at least 72 hours’ prior notice.