Vice President of Finance George Rocco DeLorenzo ’24 resigned from his position and seat on the Student Assembly amid controversy over alleged hostile behavior toward women during his role as chair of the Appropriations Committee.
DeLorenzo declined to speak on the record after his resignation.
The Student Assembly also voted to retain Vice President of Internal Operations Clyde Lederman ’26 to his position in an 11-6-10 vote, failing to reach the two-thirds majority needed for removal.
A Sunday report by the S.A. Office of Ethics recommended that the Assembly consider a recall of the two high-ranking members for a series of ethical violations, including their role in planning to protect Greek life on the Assembly and their handling of complaints about DeLorenzo’s behavior towards women. This comes after an article published by The Sun exposed text messages containing plans to shield Greek life from scrutiny and oppose women’s health resolutions.
DeLorenzo called for the Assembly to enter executive session, a closed-door meeting, to discuss the findings of the report and allegations against him as he had information to share of a sensitive nature. While the meeting was not open to the public, multiple Assembly members spoke to The Sun on condition of anonymity to share what was said that was not sensitive in nature.
According to three Assembly members, DeLorenzo appeared apologetic and argued that much of the negative discourse about his actions and leaked text messages were taken out of context. The three Assembly members also said multiple men in the Assembly argued that DeLorenzo did not deserve to be ousted for his personal opinions.
Several women serving on the Appropriations Committee voiced their concerns about retaining DeLorenzo after he allegedly subjected them to demeaning comments throughout his time as V.P. Finance, according to two Assembly members. They said DeLorenzo apologized for creating an uncomfortable work environment for some, but maintained that he was not biased in allocating funding to different student groups, a claim substantiated by an Office of Ethics investigation released last weekend.
Multiple Assembly members said that right before entering a vote about whether DeLorenzo should remain on the S.A., DeLorenzo decided to resign from his position. He later resigned from his undesignated seat on the Assembly as well.
Zora deRham ’27, current freshman representative and candidate for S.A. president, was voted into the role of V.P. Finance.
The S.A. opened the room to the public for discussion about Lederman and whether he should retain his position. Several students pointed to his actions in pre-planning the removal of ex-president Pedro Da Silveira ’25 despite not being a member of the Assembly at that time, but others defended his actions in aiding the removal of someone who then had a Title IX allegation against him. Da Silveira was later found “not responsible” for the charge.
Ultimately, Lederman retained his position as Vice President of Internal Operations, though the last Assembly meeting is next week.