In May, when the UC was beginning to tackle Springfest planning, council-wide institutional reform, and recommendations for the curricular review, Nichols was noticeably absent from meetings.

He was one absence away from being expelled under the UC’s attendance policy, and this began the series of events leading up to his resignation, according to several UC members.

Before it was amended this May, the UC’s constitution laid out few obligations for the vice president.

“The vice president until now has basically sat on his chair and recorded attendance,” says Chair of the UC Reform Commission Jonathan D. Einkauf ’06. The UC passed reforms this semester to increase the vice president’s direct involvement by chairing two new UC committees.

But Glazer says that Nichols was expected to go beyond his constitutional duties, as previous vice presidents have done.

“In my three years on the council, despite having a more loosely defined job description, vice presidents of the UC have been very active in taking on projects and following them through for the year,” Glazer says.

Nichols did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

According to Glazer, UC leaders on the executive board presented him with a petition for Nichols’ impeachment on May 9 and Nichols was asked to choose whether to resign or face the impeachment process, requiring a two-thirds majority vote at the UC general meeting that night.

Glazer and other UC executive board members did not disclose the exact circumstances of Nichols’ resignation until two weeks later.

Nichols resigned at the very beginning of the meeting, telling the UC he hadn’t committed fully to the job.

“I don’t feel I’ve really made the UC my number one priority this semester and I don’t know if this whole split ticket thing is working out,” Nichols said at the meeting, before walking out.

Although Nichols never spoke of the circumstances of his resignation, several of his friends said that he had been faced with impeachment by an executive board that had shut him out from the beginning.

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

But Glazer and other UC members said that the UC were never unwilling to work with Nichols.

A MESSY ELECTION