A natural occurrence on campus each year is a “changing of the guard,” when upperclassmen relinquish leadership roles/positions they held in campus organizations and hand the reigns to younger students ready to take on new challenges. For those leaving office, one natural feeling reigns supreme: “I hope the guy after me doesn’t screw up everything I did.”

In two years as Student Association comptroller, I spent countless hours working with groups, reviewing budgets and making improvements to the budget process. After all this work, it would have been natural to have reservations about surrendering my position to a sophomore member of the finance board.

Only thing is I didn’t feel any of that, and the lack of fear had everything to do with the man I was handing my position to.

The man was none other than current Comptroller Stephen DeSalvo. I remember first meeting DeSalvo the night he was initially elected into SA and immediately recognizing his potential to one day be a strong leader of the organization.

DeSalvo served two semesters on the finance board under my leadership and was always the strongest member of the board. He showed mastery of the financial vision and codes, and was always gathering more information about the budget process and possible improvements. DeSalvo’s initiative resulted in yourstudentfee.syr.edu, a website he created to increase the transparency of student activity fee allocation.

During his time as comptroller he has continued to make improvements to the budget process, the most recent of which resulted in the application process being moved online, making the process exponentially more convenient for student organizations. Did you wonder why this semester’s budget meeting — a meeting that has previously taken upward of three hours to complete — took just 30 minutes? Check the man behind the process. The guy who knows this job inside and out, and clearly at this point is one of the most effective comptrollers in recent history.

The student body cannot afford to elect a candidate to this position who as recently as last week was asking Office of Student Activities employees what the responsibilities of SA comptroller include. The many responsibilities cannot be explained in a five-minute meeting and cannot be understood without previous experience within SA and on the finance board — experiences not be found on Pat-Osagie’s resume.

DeSalvo is not the logical choice for SA comptroller. He is the only choice.

Jeff Rickert
SA Comptroller
54th and 55th Legislative Sessions

 

Published on November 12, 2012 at 12:01 am