Before I begin I would like to introduce myself. My name is David R. Wagner, and I am the duly elected president and trustee of Erie Community College's Undergraduate Student Government Association. I write this letter to you after reading a piece in The Spectrum. It is not often that I have the pleasure of visiting UB's campus. Often, I am too busy trying to keep things running smoothly at Erie County's second largest educational institution to visit SUNY's flagship school. However, on Friday, Sept. 27, I was on campus at UB to meet some friends for lunch. As I try to keep in abreast of the goings on at UB, I picked myself up a copy of The Spectrum. What caught my attention was a letter that was written by a senior at UB, Jason Litwak.
In his letter to the editor, Mr. Litwak went into great detail about the complications with having members of one branch or office of student government serve in another simultaneously. In addition, Litwak discusses the particular conflict of interests that present themselves when the candidates in question were elected on the same slate as the president in the last election. Litwak described the situation very fairly and accurately.
As president of an undergraduate student body a little bit smaller than UB, 13,000 students, I can tell you that it is a big job, and that those who are elected to serve this body should take it seriously, for they have a tremendously large responsibility, a responsibility that is not to be taken lightly. The constitution that governs ECC was modeled on other schools within the SUNY system, including UB. Like the UB constitution, the ECC constitution says nothing about students serving to two positions within student government at the same time. Even before this issue came up at UB, I always wondered what would happen if a situation like that presented itself at ECC, as it has at UB. The real purpose for such prohibition is the separation of powers. The president should not have sole control of all branches of student government. I realize this is a problem at UB, a problem that last week's election just exacerbates.
At the end of his letter, Litwak urges the student body at UB to request that the Student Association Assembly take action and pass an amendment to the SA constitution that would prohibit just such action as I just described. In response to the situation at UB, and on Litwak's recommendation, I am recommending that the student assembly at ECC begin the process of amending our constitution to bar such action. It is my sincere hope that the UB student assembly and SA President Christian Oliver will follow ECC's example and try to effect similar change at UB.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
