Just two weeks after electing a new president and vice president, tension was already high at Monday's meeting of the Association of Residence Hall Students.

Council members complained about an endorsement made by ARHS Vice President Melissa Pressler, elected as next year's council president. Pressler was transitioned in as ARHS president after members resolved their debate Monday.

Pressler lent her name and title to an advertisement placed in the Daily Collegian endorsing Undergraduate Student Government candidates J.P. Muir and Sue Williams yesterday. The advertisement listed several student leaders who endorsed the ticket.

But ARHS should not support any USG tickets because it wants to avoid the strained relations that could occur if an endorsed ticket lost, said Dave Shimo, ARHS treasurer.

Better communication between ARHS and other student organizations, especially USG, was one of the goals unanimously expressed by ARHS presidential and vice presidential candidates during the March 5 elections.

"What we were trying to do tonight was get politics out of ARHS," said East Halls representative Mike Snider. "If people saw the ARHS president publicly endorsing something, they would construe it as the organization's opinion."

Pressler said she did not understand why members did not approach her personally with their complaints.

"I am not an ogre with dripping fangs that you could not come to me and ask me," she told the association.

Countering Pressler's endorsement, council members unanimously passed an amendment stating that ARHS, as an organization, does not endorse any USG tickets for presidential or vice presidential USG elections.

Nic Mattioni, ARHS president during the 1988-89 school year, described Snider's opposition to Pressler's endorsement as "ludicrous."

"I've always believed that in order for an organization to be effective, it must be political," he said.

Disagreement sparked by the advertisement would not strain relations on the council since the present council will serve for only two more weeks, Shimo said.

"Any tension that was there was situational," Snider agreed. "We can yell about something -- the point is made and we can go back to being friends."