Asante-Tutu Dismisses Concerns Over Executive Mockery, Calls Debate "Not That Deep"
When USG's president was asked to address executive mockery of deliberation, she laughed it off and told everyone to move on.
At the November 12 Undergraduate Student Government General Assembly meeting, President Jessica Asante-Tutu downplayed concerns about remarks made by senior executive Hayden Price during the July 23 interim budget session, calling the incident “nothing super deep” and encouraging members to “move on.”
The comments in question, including Price’s repeated assertions that the meeting was a “disrespectful waste of everybody’s time,” were raised during the public forum segment by student Mason Bindemann, who urged leadership to acknowledge what he described as a broader “cultural accountability” issue within the organization.
“Let’s be clear,” Bindemann said. “These weren’t some private side jokes. These were live remarks on the record while senators were doing the job they were elected to do.” He noted that Price’s statements were not isolated but received public affirmation from multiple high-ranking USG officials, including then-Senior Director of Allocations Hanniel Diaz Elizarraga, Chief Justice Matthew Okocha, and current USG President Jessica Asante-Tutu.
Bindemann cited excerpts from the July Zoom chat, in which Price calculated the meeting’s per-minute “cost” using Ohio’s minimum wage, concluding at one point that the group had wasted over $300 of collective time.
“This is an insane and disrespectful waste of everybody’s time,” Price wrote, later adding, “In corporate speak: handle this offline.” The remarks were repeatedly met with support via emoji reactions or direct replies from other executive officials.
Terrell McCann, who attended the July session as a member and now serves as Speaker of the General Assembly, responded by questioning the relevance of revisiting it at all. “I think what you’re asking for is something that is just not feasible,” he said. “We’re not going to answer for past sins that are done, are over with.”
When Senator Chris Cade asked what outcome Bindemann hoped to see, he called for a formal statement affirming that mocking senators for engaging in deliberation was unacceptable. “I believe in a General Assembly that can do its job freely, seriously, and without being mocked for trying,” Bindemann said.
McCann rejected the request outright. “You're not going to get the desired outcome that you would like,” he told Bindemann. “What does censuring Hayden Price do? For what? Please tell me what rule within the organizational bylaws that Hayden Price has broken.”
In a follow-up email, Cade echoed that view. “While I do not agree with the comments Hayden made,” he wrote, “nothing said rises to a level which would require some sort of punitive action. If the things Hayden said amounted to a bylaw infraction, I would say: ‘yes, we should take action.’ But since they do not, the matter is no longer pertinent to our current business.”
After the open forum period concluded, President Asante-Tutu weighed in, defending Price and reiterating her desire to move past the controversy. “He has done a very great job in his role,” she said. “If I had any doubts as a current president of this organization, that would have been reflected in my senior staff.”
She also brushed aside concerns about the tone of the July meeting. “At the end of the day, we all laugh and kiki together,” Asante-Tutu said. “It’s not that serious. It’s not that deep.”
On November 16, Speaker McCann was asked to clarify his rejection of the 14.7% figure and his position on Hayden Price’s July 23 remarks. He declined to comment, issuing a brief statement through his office.
That same day, President Asante-Tutu was contacted with questions about her characterization of the July 23 incident as “not that serious” and whether she believed Price’s comments were appropriate for a senior executive. As of publication, she has not responded.
This article references events previously detailed in Generally Assembled’s November 12 article, How Ohio State's Student Government Learned to Stop Deliberating and Love the Budget, which first documented the July 23 meeting and the executive chat messages at the heart of this controversy.
