After an eight-hour meeting in a stuffy conference room at the downtown Buffalo Hyatt Regency on Saturday, George Pape, a junior pursuing three majors at UB, reflected on his future.
"My life really won't be my own for the next year. It will be to represent the 380,000 SUNY students out there, so it definitely will be a complicated responsibility."
Pape is referring to his newly-elected position as a SUNY Trustee. The New York State Student Assembly, with representatives from all 64 SUNY campuses, convened for their spring conference this weekend, where Pape was voted in as NYSSA president, automatically landing him a spot on the 16-member Board of Trustees. The trustees have the power to set tuition and general education requirements, and it is considered to be the most powerful position in all of SUNY.
Saturday marked the first time NYSSA's delegates selected Pape to be their president, although he has served in that position since Feb. 1 when former NYSSA President Chris Holland resigned mid-term.
With 38 votes, Pape soundly defeated his other two opponents, Joanne Freeman, chair of NYSSA's academic committee, who received three, and John Agnelli, a graduate student at New Paltz, who received 15.
The conference also elected Amanda Ferger of Fredonia College as vice president, Steve Castano of SUNY Albany as secretary and Teddy Castor of SUNY Stonybrook as treasurer.
Money Matters
Pape's campaign at the meeting was marked mostly by his and also the delegates' concern for tuition and rising campus fees.
John Oakes, a delegate from Erie Community College, raised the issue.
"You spoke in your speech about additional fees coming up, instead of raising tuition. What are you going to do about that? Currently, at our college, they are proposing a barrage of fees."
Pape did not offer a specific proposal for combating the trend, but outlined the crux of the problem, that while tuition has remained steady, rising fees increase the cost of SUNY education.
"What they [the trustees] don't understand is, or what they don't want to be reminded of . is on average, your student fee has increased $100 a year. So your tuition has increased. It's just the part of the tuition that you pay directly to the state that hasn't."
UB NYSSA Delegate Anthony Burgio inquired about the cap on the mandatory student activity fee, which is currently $180 per student, per year. Four schools currently charge the maximum allowed under the cap.
"I know that it was an issue brought up at the last conference. I'd like to know what you have done, and what actions you have taken in regards to the student activity fee cap."
Pape said he asked SUNY Chancellor Robert King about raising the cap to help fund cultural and entertainment activities for the campuses. According to Pape, the chancellor called him Friday night to tell him he raised it from $180 to $200.
Wet Feet
This was also the first conference for UB's new NYSSA delegates, Burgio, Yesenia Diaz and Kathryn Walsh.
Reflecting on the meeting, Burgio noted, "Coming from a very organized student association, it makes me appreciate the fact that I'm coming from UB, and that we definitely know our issues. It also tells me we're going to have to take a very active role among the delegates."
The delegates had to be constantly reminded not to leave the room to maintain quorum. Confusion also abounded about whether it was permissible to publicize the specific number of votes each candidate received. Delegates debated several minutes until Melissa Conrad of Finger Lakes College informed them that Section 5b of the NYSSA rules require it.
"I read bylaws," Conrad said afterwards.
Nigel Cheddie, a delegate from Suffolk County Community College, gave a colorful response to the problems within the conference.
"You don't need to have to go through all of this 'motion-this,' 'motion that.' Ladies and gentlemen, here are the issues; this is what we need to approach as a SUNY student assembly plain and simple. Other than that, make sure you don't have fools for delegates trying to be candidates."
The "fool" Cheddie refers to is Collin Thomas, a delegate from Schenectady who unsuccessfully ran for secretary. Speaking in front of the conference with purple hair and tattoos covering his arms, Thomas used his speech to complain about how he was unable to attend Friday's No Doubt concert because he took the wrong bus. NYSSA delegates were offered free tickets and busing to the concert. Thomas blamed the mistake on poor planning on the part of the NYSSA executive board.
Despite the missteps, progress was also made. Walsh was elected to head the executive committee for SUNY's four university centers. Her main objectives focus on increasing communication among the universities.
"One of the best things I've found in being in contact with other university centers is not just getting across the legislative information, but the actual things they are doing. . There are great ways for UB to develop new forms of promotion and advertising, or events and ideas we haven't had that some place like Binghamton does have," said Walsh.
Diaz, as chair of NYSSA's diversity committee, outlined her plan to institute a multicultural sensitivity program for both public safety and faculty at all SUNY campuses.
"Seeing that everyone here thinks we should have it, I need you guys to help me and do things on each of your individual campuses. Talk to your public safety, find out about specific incidents. Consider the fact that most incidents [of racial/ethnic discrimination] go unreported," said Diaz, addressing the conference.
She added, "If you have a faculty member and you're of a different ethnicity, and your priorities are different because of your culture, and you need to reschedule a class, that class might not be sensitive to you and there's no way of reporting incidents like that."
The conference, comprised of delegates from various racial and ethnic backgrounds, mirrored the diversity of student life on each of the different SUNY campuses. Cheddie caught the attention of many delegates when he explained that his campus has only $2,000 in funds for student activities - a pittance compared to UB's $2.2 million - and that his office has no fax machine.
Cheddie also remarked later on why he decided to join NYSSA as he piled food on his plate from the banquet table for lunch.
"I was the kid that was doing all of the drug dealing, I was the kid that did the racketeering. I was the pariah of society. Because of Coach Daniels', who's the director of our multicultural affairs over at Suffolk, tutelage and lessons, I decided to take it into a different direction knowing that I can transpose my talents from one area that is not considered to be acceptable by society, to leading students in a fashion and form that they need for this type of representation."
