After Nichols’ announcement, Glazer told the UC that the resignation was positive for the UC.

“It seems like this will be the best thing for the council, the campus, and for him personally,” Glazer told the UC after Nichols’ departure.

UC representatives have criticized Nichols recently for his absence from the last two UC general meetings and the UC-sponsored Springfest. Nichols was one absence away from being expelled, based on UC attendance rules.

One of Nichols’ responsibilities as vice president was to keep track of members’ attendance at general and committee meetings.

UC secretary Matthew R. Greenfield ’08—who is acting vice president until the UC holds elections—said after the meeting that there had been “talk of a petition” among UC members that would begin the process of impeaching Nichols after his unexplained absences, but that he did not think that Nichols had been threatened with it to resign.

According to the UC bylaws, a petition with ten signatures and a vote of two-thirds of the UC is needed to impeach a member. Greenfield said that attaining a two-thirds majority would be nearly impossible in the case of most members, and in particular Nichols, who Greenfield said has a lot of friends on the UC.

“The idea of being forced out is really inconceivable,” Greenfield said.

Nichols was elected last December as part of a nearly unprecedented split ticket, raising questions about whether a leadership team that had run separately could be effective.

After Nichols’ resignation last night, the UC passed long-standing legislation mandating that the UC president and vice president run and be elected as a single ticket.

Moore, who ran with Nichols, said yesterday that Nichols said he had been alienated from the UC’s executive board since being elected vice president.

“I definitely think he felt forced out,” said Moore. “Throughout the semester, he’s been talking to me about the reluctance of the executive board to work with him.”

Greenfield also said that he did not think that Nichols was alienated from the executive board, and said that people gave Nichols “the benefit of the doubt” in working with him.

Not since 1992 has the second-in-command of the UC resigned, when vice chair Maya G. Prabhu ’94 was accused of tampering with ballots.

The vice-chair position was renamed vice president one year later.

—Evan H. Jacobs contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Liz C. Goodwin can be reached at goodwin@fas.harvard.edu.