The Undergraduate Student Government Senate ended its semester by questioning the leadership of one of its own before focusing its attention on condemning The Daily Collegian last night.

The Town Caucus, a committee that comprises all of the USG town senators, voted to remove Town Sen. Mike Fazio from his position as chair of the caucus. Town Sen. Rob Michaels said the measure was necessary because there are five town senators who were appointed to the body who did not have a chance to vote Fazio into the position of caucus chair.

"It's nothing personal," Michaels said. "I think Mike's done a pretty good job."

Town Sen. Jason Covener said the composition of the body has changed to such a degree that the caucus members have different ideas than Fazio.

"The fact is, the current chair does not represent the members of Town Caucus," Covener said.

Fazio, in his fourth year on senate, said he was surprised at the action taken by his fellow senators, and was upset they did not address him personally if they had a problem with how he was leading the caucus.

"I didn't really see that coming," Fazio said. In October, after he opposed the senate's censor of USG President Justin Zartman, he thought he might be removed as caucus chair, but "not now."

Fazio said the caucus was moving in the right direction under his leadership.

"I was the only chair position not in the coalition, and I think that played a role in it," Fazio said in reference to the conservative majority in senate.

The senate also passed a resolution condemning The Daily Collegian for an editorial Monday that criticized USG's refusal to fund Pride Week. The resolution states that the Collegian "printed an inaccurate . . . and vicious attack on USG Senate" and it condemns "the dastardly actions" of the Collegian's Board of Opinion.

The senators sponsoring the legislation took issue with the last paragraph of the editorial, which stated: "The homophobia harbored by senate is not representative of Penn State overall, and senators should be mindful of that."

Town Sen. T.J. Kokolis said the board went out on a limb and did not research any of its facts in composing the editorial.

"It harms the integrity of senators on the body and it harms the reputations of those senators on this body," Kokolis said.

Covener, who was quoted in the editorial, said he is normally not bothered by bad press, but this was "beyond the realm of journalistic integrity." Senate President Sean Clark said he was "distraught" by the sentence.

"Quite frankly, the Collegian should be ashamed of themselves," Covener said.

Collegian Editor in Chief Jill Leonard said the members of the Board of Opinion felt strongly about USG's denial of Pride Week funding and used their First Amendment right to express their opinion in the editorial.

"We're obviously not going to change the way we will operate," Leonard said. "It's not going to force us to change any practices or policies."

-- Collegian Staff Writer Erica Zarra contributed to this report