Two Associated Students Inc. executive members resigned last week, with one member leaving to assist suffering family members and to combat what he feels is unfair treatment of African-Americans in Student Affairs.

ASI President Angel Barajas said Execitive Vice President James Shelby II resigned Sept. 9, but Barajas didn’t want to make the resignation public until Sept. 14, after ASI Board of Directors was informed.

President of Finance Julio Velazquez also resigned, but could not be reached for comment.Shelby said family reasons brought on by Hurricane Katrina were not the only reason why he stepped down. He said other factors played into his decision to leave ASI. Such factors, he said, had to do with the Student Affairs department at Sac State and its treatment of students and staff members.

“Particularly some of their practices administratively ?” they’ve gotten rid of African American administrators without good reason,” Shelby said.

Shelby said he wants to confront the issue as a student because he doesn’t think “ASI is an effective vehicle to take on the challenge that I want to take on.”

Vice President of Student Affairs, Lori Varlotta, said “Mr. Shelby has never come to me and expressed his concerns about student affairs.”

Varlotta said that since Shelby was an active member of the Search Committee for a year and worked closely with Student Affairs directors, he had sufficient opportunities to speak up about the issue.

Barajas said that he was only aware of family issues being Shelby’s reason to justify his resignation.

Shelby’s resignation was mentioned at the meeting when Barajas was referring the $100,000 in possible Sacramento Regional Transit renegotiating funds legislation that Shelby authored.

Shelby said that in order to assist his family after the hurricane’s destructive aftermath, he has decided to resign from his post and work more hours to earn more money.

“One of the ways I can help is to work a full-time job,” Shelby said.

Shelby was a graduate student at Sac State, looking to earn his second master’s degree and decided to stop because of family reasons, Barajas said.

ASI directors must be full-time students in order to be eligible for an ASI position, Barajas said. Since Shelby opted to work instead of attending school, he could not have remained as Executive Vice President.

Shelby said he has no plans of returning to ASI at any time in the future.

Barajas said ASI is going through an application process to fill the positions. Barajas said he will make sure to appoint only the most qualified individuals to the positions of executive vice president and vice president of finance.

“The board of directors and I thank both of the students for their service,” Barajas said.

Jessica Weidling can be reached at [email protected]