Former Missouri Students Association presidential candidate Syed Ejaz said he is no longer going to take part in the association as a senator and would like to get more involved in the “service aspect” of leadership during his remaining time at MU.
“I still love Senate to death, (but) I very much disagree with a lot of senators right now,” Ejaz said. “I really have no desire to build back some of the bridges that I’ve burned.”
Ejaz said he originally wanted to return to the Campus and Community Relations Committee after [his denial](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2016/1/18/former-msa-presidential-candidate-syed-ejaz-denied/) as the Operations Committee chairman, but has since decided to end his career in MSA after the events of the senate meeting on Jan. 28 in which many students [voiced their opinions](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2016/1/28/students-reproach-haden-gomez-during-open-forum-ms/) about Gomez and Hanner.
Ejaz and vice presidential candidate Heather Parrie announced officially via social media following the [heated Senate meeting](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2016/1/28/how-msa-senate-toppled-their-president-elect/) in which president-elect Haden Gomez and vice-president-elect Chris Hanner resigned.
“In that open forum, Heather and I participated as well, and we said some very candid remarks about Haden to Haden’s face,” Ejaz said. “A lot of people don’t like us for that in Senate. We at no point had any intention of disrespecting Haden’s humanity, (but) we had every intention of disrespecting his privilege though, because that’s what got him into the presidency.”
Thank you to everyone who asked us to run again, but Ejaz//Parrie will not be running in the special election. pic.twitter.com/jam7rOY4Fq
— Ejaz // Parrie (@mizzoutogether) January 29, 2016
“This campaign was about showing bravery in the face of injustice and standing up when everyone else refused to,” the statement said. “We have accomplished what we ran for and now we challenge MSA to institute major reforms and continue what we’ve started.”
During the Senate meeting, Parrie [spoke about deciding not to report Gomez](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2016/1/28/students-reproach-haden-gomez-during-open-forum-ms/) to the Title IX office because she didn’t have faith in its system after he made a sexual advance toward her.
“I hope you look back, and you feel real shitty about it,” Parrie [said during the Jan. 28 Senate meeting.](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2016/1/28/how-msa-senate-toppled-their-president-elect/)
Ejaz said it was a difficult decision not to run for MSA president because of the support he received from the student body after the Senate meeting. However, when meeting with Parrie and members of his campaign team, Ejaz said he made the decision not to run because he wanted to move on from the events of last semester.
“If you were just a fly on the wall, you’d think that we would definitely be running, but deep down, I don’t think anybody really wanted to,” Ejaz said. “That night we all got together and we wrote up our statements and for the first time in eight months I could say that we were all really happy because it felt like whatever obligation we had to run was just gone, and that was a huge weight off of our shoulders.”
Parrie could not be reached for comment.
_Edited by Waverly Colville | wcolville@themaneater.com_
