George Pape, president of the Student Association, delivered a brief summary of his administration's past and a glimpse into SA's future, in his State of the SA address Tuesday night in the Student Union.
The address, given to a joint meeting of SA's Senate and Assembly, focused on recent expansions in the student government, including the new SA Entertainment division, the new Student Club Resource Center and social enhancements like the DJ Series, all funded with the mandatory student activity fee.
"Mediocrity is not acceptable, especially when it comes to spending your money," Pape said.
Pape discussed the recent name change of University Union Activity Board to SA Entertainment and other changes that came along with it. Pape said he supported the change because it has allowed SA to streamline its funds and give special events better prestige.
"We've been able to make sure the events are a little more high-profiled," he said.
According to Pape, when Busta Rhymes cancelled his appearance at this past Fallfest on short notice, the successful search for a quality replacement act showed SA Entertainment's superiority to UUAB as it was run under Sub-Board I.
"We never would have gotten Nas under the old regime," said Pape.
Pape then described SA's new Student Club Resource Center in 315 Student Union.
According to Pape, many groups were vying for the office after the Millard Fillmore Academic College vacated, and SA will be using its resources to turn the space into "a one-stop-shop for all of our clubs."
When complete, the center will contain telephones, televisions, fax machines, Internet access and other items for use by all clubs.
Pape said attendance for the first SA DJ party at the Sphere in downtown Buffalo exceeded 1,800, and this was a sign of success.
"The thought that students want to party should not be new to student government," said Pape. He added that an upcoming SA party will include a DJ flown in from Scandinavia.
To guard against another tuition increase of the magnitude seen last year, Pape proposed to examine SUNY Chancellor Robert King's proposal of smaller, more frequent ration-based tuition increases to prevent large price jumps.
"We would support a rational-based tuition increase, if in fact it is a rational-based tuition increase," Pape said.
To accompany the small increases, Pape added that there should be strict caps placed on mandatory student fees to help ease the financial burden.
"What we're doing today is paying for yesterday's students. That sucks," said Pape, addressing the fact that there had been no tuition increases in over five years before the steep hike last year.
After Pape's address, Jen Tuttle, student representative in the Presidential Search Advisory Committee and president of the Faculty Student Association, made remarks on the progress of the presidential search and also held a forum on how FSA could improve dining facilities.
The search to replace President William R. Greiner is coming to a close, according to Tuttle, and the committee has narrowed their list to fewer than five candidates.
Though she could not name names, Tuttle said the remaining candidates were from relatively large universities and she was pleased with those remaining.
"They are all very qualified candidates," said Tuttle.
When interviewing the candidates, Tuttle said that her major concerns centered on two things - athletics and humanities.
Tuttle said UB is not a football powerhouse yet and a future president would have to address the concerns raised by students regarding the athletics program.
Tuttle also said she wanted to make sure UB's future leader did not neglect the humanities, which she said is done too often at large research universities.
In the discussion of FSA, Tuttle said she knows the food on campus is not exactly gourmet.
"It is not exactly the tastiest treat out there, and it is quite expensive," she said.
Students raised concerns about the dining facilities on South Campus, claiming that there is a severe shortage of seating in the dining halls, and that the hours of operation at the FSA-run Main Street Market are short and inconvenient.
Following Tuttle's presentation, the first separate Assembly and Senate meetings of the year commenced.
The Assembly, which consists of 138 students this year, voted to approve SA's presidential appointments and Assembly committees and discussed selection of specific committees by individual Assembly members.
Senate members voted Cheryl Rozario as the new Senate chairwoman.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
