Repetition was the theme at Monday night’s Student Association meeting. It took three rounds of voting for SA to decide on one of the Syracuse University Board of Trustees’ liaisons for next semester. President Larry Seivert was up for the position, but the assembly chose two other representatives.

Helene Kahn and Bonnie Kong, both members of SA, were elected to the positions. There were only two liaison slots available, and Kahn and Seivert held them this past semester.

It took the assembly more than an hour to decide between Kahn and Seivert to fill the one vacant position left after Kong was voted in.

As Board of Trustees liaisons, two members of the student body are able to go before the board with student concerns. SU’s Board of Trustees is the major governing body of the university and is positioned above the chancellor.

SA member Ben Schott questioned whether or not the Board of Trustees was the place to go for addressing relationships with other institutions, in particular, the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

‘This is the perfect type of issue that is brought to the Board of Trustees,’ Kahn explained. ‘Issues such as parking or the need for iridescent light bulbs in buildings are problems that can be solved elsewhere.’

Many assembly members felt that both Seivert and Kahn were more than qualified for the position, especially after establishing respectable relations with the board this semester. But some members voiced concern that Seivert should focus more on the SA presidency.

‘I’d really like to see Larry focus on being president of SA,’ said representative Mike Fleishman. ‘He has the personal connections, but I’m concerned about his ability to do both jobs to the best of his ability. It’s not that he isn’t capable. He’s definitely capable.’

Others felt that being president of SA was the exact reason Seivert should also be a Board of Trustees liaison.

‘By definition, he’s the voice of the student body,’ said representative Neal Casey. ‘Where better to put the voice of the students than right next to the people who write the checks?’

The voting process had to be redone two different times because neither candidate won the necessary four-fifths vote. Each time that the procedure was repeated, the debate sparked.

‘He can be the voice of the students outside of the Board of Trustees,’ Tyrone Shaw said about Seivert. ‘I feel Larry has the capacity to do his job and do it very well without being on the Board of Trustees. Larry is brilliant at what he does. He doesn’t need the Board of Trustees to do that.’

Kahn walked away with the position, with exactly four-fifths vote after the assembly decided they needed to fill the position before the night was over.

Other points of interest covered at the meeting include:

* SA Comptroller Lily Mei has been reading other school’s constitution bylaws and is making changes to how SA will run the budgeting process in the future.

* Seivert compiled a list of budget recommendations based on what other schools have implemented, and the assembly took part in a budget review discussion.

* The SA committee on student life is ready to introduce a pilot program in the fall that will increase dining hall hours of operation until 8 p.m.

* SA has established a ride board in Schine that offers students the opportunity to post where they’re going and when they’re going home within the next few weeks. The campaign, called ‘Share the Fare,’ gives students the opportunity to save money by splitting fuel costs.

mequalte@syr.edu

Published on April 27, 2009 at 12:00 pm