The Daily Orange News AnalysisIt provides insight into important news events while focusing on the background, context and future of the situation. The article is influenced by the writer’s understanding, reporting and familiarity with the subject matter, but does not contain any personal opinions.

As spring semester draws to a close, the Student Association’s 51st session nears its halfway point. With a new administration, the association has addressed a variety of issues, both on campus and within the organization itself.

During his campaign last semester, President Ryan Kelly made a laundry list of campaign promises, which called for SA to:

-act as a liaison between SU and city government

-address South Campus violence

-reinvent Schine Underground as a student hangout

-organize a conference to bring student leaders together

-lead community service efforts

Here’s a look at what’s happened so far.

Major EventsSA’s first big event this semester was the Student Leadership Summit on Jan. 31.

The summit attracted 182 student leaders from approximately 150 different organizations on campus to Goldstein Auditorium to discuss issues surrounding three main topics: diversity, campus safety and first-year experience on South Campus. The selection of those topics was based on a campus survey conducted in fall 2006.

A report compiled from notes taken at the meeting was presented at a special SA meeting on March 5.

While only a few non-assembly members attended the follow-up meeting, the summit has provided SA with some direction.

‘Having the students first say what their initial concerns are through a survey and then having them express those concerns in more detail has really given us kind of a beacon to guide ourselves,’ Kelly said. ‘SA needs to reflect what the students are feeling – it’s our job, since we are elected officials.’

Engaging SA and the student body off campus has been another prerogative this session, and it was put to the test by recent off-campus housing controversy.

The South East Neighborhood Association petitioned the Syracuse Common Council to limit the number of unrelated housing occupants from five to three, which would affect students living off campus in the popular Euclid Avenue area.

SA representatives and students attended a March 1 council hearing in City Hall. It was the first time the proposal was brought before the council, although it was not voted on.

‘For the students to overflow the room was not only impressive,’ Kelly said, ‘it also showed the Common Council that we are here, and if they are thinking about passing a bill like this, we’re ready to do what we need to.’

Since the meeting, Kelly said SA has been working with SEUNA to come up with a joint proposal that addresses some of the group’s complaints – parking, trash and noise – without changing the housing limit.

On the student engagement side, SA has been involved in several on-campus programs, such as the Vera House Campaign, The Totally Fabulous Drag Show and Adopt-A-Street.

Adopt-A-Street is a community service program organized by the Office of Off-Campus Student Services. SA and several other student groups volunteer once a month to clean an adopted section of a street – in SA’s case, the 200 to 400 blocks of Euclid Avenue.

‘What I like about it, too, is it’s a long-term commitment,’ said Katherine Chillscyzn, chairwoman of the Committee on Student Engagement. ‘It’s ongoing, and it really creates bonds and forms relationships between student groups on campus and the off-campus community.’

ChangesSA has seen some changes this semester, both internal and external. For new members, the transition into the assembly has become easier.

‘When I came to this organization, I didn’t really know who to turn to,’ said Larry Seivert, chairman of the Committee on University Affairs, who joined SA last semester. ‘I felt kind of a disconnect when I went in the office because the people who had been there were so used to each other.’

But Seivert said that is no longer true this session. ‘Seeing the new assembly members come in, they seem much more at home,’ he said.

Chillscyzn, who joined SA at the beginning of the 51st session, agrees, saying she was at first apprehensive about becoming part of the organization.

‘I was just nervous, because I feel like a lot of people know each other from past sessions,’ she said. ‘But it’s a really good group, and people really come together and help you out.’

Also underway is a change in how SA interacts with other student groups – carried over, in part, from last session.

‘I feel that Ryan Kelly is trying to make his organization more than a financial group,’ said Cosi Saint-Phard, president of Pride Union, a LGBT student group. ‘For a while, they were just that place were you got funded.’

Indeed, that is something SA’s leaders are well aware of. Some of SA’s main criticisms in the past were that it acted only as a financial body and that it lacked a ‘pulse’ that was in tune with issues on campus, Kelly said.

‘We’re continuing to work on our legitimacy and (making sure) that students know we are the body to come to if you guys have a problem,’ he said, adding that the assembly is looking for representatives with this kind of mindset.

‘I don’t want representatives on this body that don’t work for the students,’ Kelly said. ‘I would rather have five members than 30 that aren’t proactive.’

He has applied the same philosophy in choosing members for his cabinet.

‘SA has been quite successful in recruiting cabinet members who are aware of what is happening on campus,’ said Associate Dean of Students Juanita Perez Williams.

In the past, most cabinet members were involved only in SA, she said. Now, the members are each involved in a variety of other organizations.

Interaction between SA and other student groups has improved somewhat, according to Saint-Phard from the LGBT group.

SA seems a little more organized, she said, especially in terms of budgeting. This semester, each student organization applying for funds received budgeting instructions in their mailboxes.

‘They’ve done a great job of really reaching out to student organizations,’ said Clarence Cross, president of University Union. ‘From my stance, there definitely has been an improvement.’

On the other hand, Saint-Phard said, approaching SA members can be a bit difficult because they are always so busy.

‘There’s a lot of red tape in their group. It’s run like a senate,’ she said, adding that she doesn’t ‘think they can change how they run their organization because it’s so big.’

The relationship between SA and university administrators and faculty has also changed. Kelly has worked closely with them to understand their initiatives, according to Dean Williams.

‘In the past, there was a philosophy that in order to be successful at leadership, you had to be suspect,’ she said. ‘I’m not saying Ryan is leaving that. I think what he’s also trying to do is do that along with collaborating with (university) leadership.’

ImprovementsDespite the wealth of initiatives, some feel there are improvements to be made.

‘The student activity fee needs to be raised,’ Cross, the UU president, said.

Compared to other ‘peer’ universities, SU’s fee is much lower, and an increase would allow for more and better programming, Cross said. Although he said the fee increase was more important, Cross would also like to see UU’s budgeting system changed from a per semester basis to yearly, which he says will also save money.

On March 26, SA delayed a proposal to change UU’s budgeting system – after a committee within Kelly’s Cabinet received the proposal on March 23 – saying it agreed with the proposal but that there was not enough time for a thorough review before the April 5 budget deadline.

The announcement came as a surprise to some assembly members, particularly Neville Williams, who spent four months on his own working on UU’s budget prior to the announcement. Neville Williams said he wished assembly members better communicated what they are working on to avoid overlap.

‘I don’t know what other people are working on, and I guess I wish it was easier to have cross-talk between assembly members,’ he said.

Neville Williams has been involved in SA for about a year and said he also would like more time to discuss bills in assembly, before they are introduced for a vote.

‘A lot of the time, if you receive the bill, you’re expected to vote on it, and that’s that,’ he said. ‘You’ll have pro-con debate before the bill, but the vote is still pressing forward.’

‘I think sometimes it puts imminent nature in a lot of our minds, especially when we generally don’t have the bills or the agenda two days beforehand to sort of look at it, digest it, get the feelings of the constituency and things like that,’ he said. He added that this could partly be solved by showing assembly members the bills before they reach the floor.

Before bills reach the assembly, they must go through and be approved by at least one committee, depending on the nature of the legislation.

Yet SA Parliamentarian Marko Markov offers a different reason for the lack of debate.

Assembly members may present their ideas before writing the actual bill and receive feedback from the rest of SA.

‘If they do it in such a way that they don’t keep the assembly out of the loop, then the debate on the bill will be less just, because people understand the details,’ he said, adding that he feels this is why there seems to be less debate over bills this session.

What’s next?Even as they near the halfway point of the session, SA still has a large list of goals that it has not reached.

Seivert, SA chairman, said he would like his committee to address lighting on and off campus – one of the issues discussed during the leadership summit.

‘So far, we’ve kind of lost a little steam with lighting committees,’ he said. ‘We’re in efforts with Rami Badawy (director of Judicial Affairs). He submitted a report to the chancellor. We’re really waiting to see what’s going on with lighting.’

Revitalization of the Schine Underground is now overseen by Vice President Marlene Goldenberg, who said the administration is very receptive to the idea.

Goldenberg is working on gathering research for the project. Although construction will probably not begin until later sessions, she said she hopes to have the administration’s approval before the 51st session is up.

Chillscyzn and her committee are helping organize a forum next semester – similar in nature to the leadership summit – for all of SU’s greek councils to meet and discuss issues, as well as get to know each other.

‘I know they’re going to be looking to SA next semester for some kind of funding and support for this forum,’ Chillscyzn said. ‘We’re really there to support, but also to give our ideas and feedback.’

Neville Williams is working on several proposals of his own, including a revised smoking policy, a campus-wide energy conservation and recycling program, and an SA-sponsored student DVD library.

Also in development is a new merit scholarship, headed by Joe Wieder, chair of the Committee on Academic Affairs. If implemented, the scholarship would help students who are excelling at SU but who entered the school without a scholarship.

Wieder’s committee is also looking into an academic resources center on South Campus, a difficult task, because it will require construction. Kelly said he hopes to have a completed proposal submitted to the chancellor by the end of the spring.

‘Everyone points to South Campus as having social problems – which there are,’ Kelly said, ‘but the people that live there have said, ‘No, that’s not the problem; we get along just fine. We need some place to do work.”

But a common goal for many SA members is recruitment and raising student awareness about the organization. Recruitment e-mails, according to Kelly, should have been sent out to all the listservs at each college.

The assembly’s public relations department has also begun its Nowhere to Hide campaign, an effort to publicize representatives to their constituents. Each assembly member will have posters with their photograph put up in their respective home colleges.

‘We just want people to know that we’re here, and we’re for them,’ said Jasmine Jackson, SA’s director of internal affairs. ‘A lot of people think we’re just another student organization with our own agenda, but our agenda comes from the students.’

Published on April 22, 2007 at 12:00 pm