Student Association Vice President T.J. Scandaliato resigned at Tuesday night’s senate meeting and was replaced by Senate Pro Tempore Ajay Lentini on Wednesday.

"Due to a series of unfortunate events that are both professional and personal, I have to resign the vice presidency of the Student Association," Scandaliato said in his speech to the senate. "This is not something that I am happy about and I don’t often look upon myself as a quitter, so this is especially hard."

S.A. President Steven DiMarzo said he was initially worried when he learned of Scandaliato’s plans to resign.

"We really just started hitting the ground running. We’ve been moving really well and getting very strong internally, and a change could create a hiccup, but after talking to him [Scandaliato] and hearing his reasons, he needs to do this for himself," DiMarzo said.

Scandaliato said his decision to resign was not made lightly and took him weeks to accept.

Scandaliato said the job required a lot of effort, and, if he were to give it less than a full effort, it would hurt the students who elected him. It also required a lot of time and drive.

"It’s a stressful job and you really need to make sure you love it and, while I did, there are some things in my life I need to pay more attention to that affect me in a much greater way," he said. "And, while I believe in public service, it’s also important to make sure you have everything in your life in line."

James Scharfenberger, dean of Student Affairs and adviser to S.A. said resignations have occurred in the past due to personal and academic reasons.

"There’s a lot of work to being vice president, or any officer positions in S.A., so it’s important to be able to focus and do your academics at the same time," Scharfenberger said. "It’s important to be able to establish your priorities and sometimes things change and you have to adjust."

Lentini has been a senator since fall 2009 and chairs the Rules and Judiciary committee.

"I want to continue what we started doing so far," Lentini said. "I just want to make sure that we don’t get stalled in senate, I want things to keep rolling."

While Lentini has no official goals yet, he hopes to increase the membership of off-campus students in senate.

Scharfenberger does not foresee the transition causing any difficulties for S.A. DiMarzo is also confident S.A. will not suffer from the resignation.

"We’re going to continue in the direction we’ve been going," DiMarzo said. "We’re going to remain strong and grow as planned."

Scandliato said he plans on staying with S.A. for the next week to help with the transition. While he is unsure if he will be involved in S.A. in the future, he has not ruled anything out.