SA struggles to make voice matter in UB decisions

Dela Yador knows what UB students think about their student government.

"Crooked. Corrupt. They do two concerts a year and that's it," says Yador, president of the Student Association. "Embezzling money. I have people on staff that have friends who ask what's SA really about. What do they do?"

With Fall Fest on Friday, the question is a pertinent one. Yador is now the leader of what has evolved during the last five years into a nearly $3 million undergraduate force that brings headliners for Fests, supports clubs and sports teams, and runs free movies. Entertainment and clubs, however, are suddenly what SA is best known for. In becoming a stronger student association, it has become less of a student government, weaker when it comes to governance.

Yador says it is a priority of his to recapture SA's place in student advocacy, but as he and the rest of SA are finding, a gap between them, students and the administration will make doing so easier said then done.

Dennis Black, vice president for student affairs, says SA certainly spends more of its energy on the campus climate and out-of-class experience than institutional issues and the academic experience, but that is their choice.

"It's their student government," Black said. "They decide who it is and what they should do and what they should be interested in."

"In no year," Black said, "are they totally divorced from academic life at UB, but some students and student leaders are move involved (than others)."

According to Yador, he is happy with what SA has become under previous presidents, but "as far as advocacy, we are working on a few things right now to bring us back up above sea level."

The big problem, however, is that even when SA has tried over the last few years to play a role in university decisions, the misses seem to outweigh the hits.

Last year, SA's self-described success was negotiating a new parking policy with the department of transportation. And while SA was successful to convince UB not to ban commuters from certain lots, ultimately the department decided to ban freshmen even when the SA Assembly passed a resolution to not target freshmen drivers.

The Assembly, which along with the Student Affairs division are SA's two main avenues for student advocacy, also doesn't meet enough times during the semester. Last spring there was a nearly two-month gap during which the Park Hall Caf?(c) was almost closed, buses were breaking down, the Comprehensive Fee was hiked, AVCOR was introduced, plans to move the pharmacy school to South Campus materialized, and a print limit was planned - all issues relevant to students that never found their way to SA.

Plus, many of the issues that do come in front of the Assembly, Student Affairs, Senate and E-board are rehashed ones. For years, SA has been trying to extend hours at the Undergraduate Library and Alumni Arena to no avail.

Other solid ideas, like bus passes or AAA benefits for commuters, pass through SA discussion, reach halfway progress, and are never heard from again.

SA has had its successes, as Yador can proudly point to the leveling of the Sub-Board fee and negotiating UB to join a worker's rights group, but how often do student groups come to SA like Students Against Sweatshops did? And what happens when SA has been working for months on a project like the new health center, but essentially has no leverage to do anything when the money for it disappears?

For SA officials, they are often doing the best they can to keep a finger on the pulse of an 18,000-person population that largely doesn't care enough to vote in elections.

"It's disheartening when you're the voice of students to get students up and empower them, and then when you do something, nothing happens," Yador said.

Part of the problem, Yador said, comes from the administration.

"We have to make sure we're more informed with what's going on," he said.

Barbara Ricotta, dean of students, said when UB looks to make changes or decisions, it will often look to SA for a voice, but not always. Right now, she said she believes SA and student affairs have a good relationship, at least from an administrative point of view.

Black, too, said no one voice should be a decider, not even the student government's.

"The Student Association has programs and services it's responsible for and it operates those without question and challenge," Black said. "Within the university they are a voice, but there are many voices."

There are other positions, Black added, like the one student on the UB Council, that deal strictly with campus issues.

SA Senate Chair Viqar Hussain said it is a matter of SA and the administration getting on the same page and not seeing problems as "us versus them."

"SA basically is the voice. When you yell something as loud as possible you can only get so much done," Hussain said. "But when you're speaking something intellectual, that's when you get the results."

Hussain also points to a second reason SA has trouble with advocacy - it doesn't have enough students who care.

"The more students there are involved, the more effective SA is," he said.

That said, Hussain believes SA's advocacy is underappreciated. Four years ago SA worked to create Hubie's, but few of the many students who use the Ellicott food court remember that.

"(SA) is doing a lot more than students think it is," he said. "The people who realize it are the staff members themselves who realize what they've accomplished when they look at it."

Yador also said he wishes more students would get involved to make Student Affairs and the Assembly more relevant. It's hard to wield power for 18,000 when only 20 show up to meetings.

"I honestly feel that the Assembly has a long way to go, but it is one of those untapped resources," Yador said.

Hassan Shibly, chair of the Assembly, is one of several within SA that would like to see SA become better committed to Yador's call for advocacy.

"With SA there's limited time, limited resources," he said. "SA has been spending a lot of time on entertainment."

Right now, Shibly said, SA is still trying to figure out how to best be a government again. Last semester, he said, the Senate was given more responsibilities similar to the Assembly's, but that didn't work.

And as for the administration, "It is good they're taking our opinions and considering them," Shibly said. "It's only for their best interests for them to take into consideration."

When asked what needs to be done to steer SA in the right direction, Shibly says it's hard to know where to begin.

"The problem is that getting everyone in one place at one time," he said. "We need more students who care."

But even within that statement, Shibly recognizes another problem inherent in SA advocacy - everyone in it is, after all, only a student, and there is always a battle with time, resources, and apathy. At the first Assembly meeting of the semester, as usual, only a handful of the students showed up who were supposed to.

"We're just students doing what we got to do," Shibly s