A dispute at a UF Student Senate committee meeting Sunday left the Gator Party and the Orange and Blue Party pointing fingers over job responsibility.
Sen. Eric Wolf submitted his resignation from the Orange and Blue Party on Friday to become an independent senator. In doing so, Wolf brought the Orange and Blue's roster down to seven members.
In order for a minority party to have a senator on the Replacement and Agenda Committee, it must have at least eight members. The committee is responsible for assigning senators to each of Senate's five committees.
Wolf said he was unaware his resignation would have caused ineligibility for the party and re-registered with Orange and Blue on Monday.
"The minority party deserves a voice," Wolf said. "So, of course, I changed my mind."
But the process leading up to the potential party crisis was not easily dismissed.
Sen. Frank Bracco, an independent who is serving as a replacement for an Orange and Blue senator during summer A, said the party's members were unaware of Wolf's resignation and their ineligibility to have a member on the committee until Sunday's meeting.
"There were a couple tense moments when we thought the world was going to come to an end," Bracco said.
Orange and Blue Party leader Sam Miorelli said it was Senate President Kellie Dale's responsibility to alert the party of its situation when she learned of it Friday afternoon.
Her notice would have allowed the Orange and Blue Party a chance to solve its issue, Miorelli said.
Miorelli said Dale deliberately withheld information from the Orange and Blue party to revoke its representation on the committee. But Dale said members of the Orange and Blue Party have only themselves to blame.
"I'm not sure where their internal communication broke down to make them unaware of the situation," Dale said. "But it's their responsibility to know what is going on within their own party - not ours."
