"I am very sorry that Liz is going to be stepping down and am extremely discouraged by the inappropriate and childish debate that's been flying around on e-mail and on the council floor," Nelson said in an interview prior to Tuesday's election.

"This is not the first time this has happened," he said. "We left common decency months ago in the way people are talking to each other."

"A lot of us, especially freshmen, are quite fed up with it," he added.

Wolinsky, however, said although it was unfortunate that Haynes felt personally attacked, it was more of a philosophical difference between members than it was a personal difference.

"It was more that there was frustration with trying to get differing philosophies to mix and produce the results we wanted," Wolinsky said.

In an interview last night, Haynes acknowledged that she had philosophical differences with other committee members, but said she did not think they should have had an effect on her position as chair of the committee.

"I didn't run on any sort of philosophy besides being able to look at both sides of an issue, take whatever is decided by the committee and present it to the administration in the best way that I know how in order to make it beneficial for both students and faculty," she said. "My personal feelings are completely irrelevant to how good of a chair I can be."

Simons said he is optimistic that the transition will go smoothly.

"I think losing Liz is a tremendous loss to the committee, but I think the committee is going to basically continue in the direction it's been going," Simons said.

"The committee is going to have to work out some issues on its own--efficiency of time, how our meetings are run, who has the authority to do what, that sort of thing--but we've gotten a lot of good resolutions through, and we're going to continue to get a lot of good resolutions through," he added.

The chair of the Student Affairs Committee acts as the liaison between the college administration and the student government