GSA Scandal

In February, Rachel Dwyer, Graduate Student Association President, removed from her appointment to the Sub Board I, Inc. executive board, Razy Kased. A master's student, Kased was the SBI president before his removal.

On Tuesday, April 7, Dwyer proceeded to remove Kased from his position as Student-Wide Judiciary justice and revoked his SUNY Assembly voting power.

The quotations listed below are excerpts. First, there is a passage from the letter that Dwyer gave to Kased informing him of his termination. Following, SA President Peter Grollitsch comments on accusations made against SA and Kased. Also, there are quotations from interviews about Kased, which were conducted by The Spectrum's Senior News Editor Kelly Warth.

Passage from letter from GSA President Rachel Dwyer to SBI President Razy Kased informing him of his termination from Sub Board I, Inc.:

"It is my (Rachel Dwyer's) belief that you (Razy Kased) have shown an inability to achieve agreed upon objective, misrepresented to me actions taken to achieve objectives, and have shown an inability to work as a member of a team toward common objectives. It is my judgment that you have shown a lack of proper leadership ethics by your inability and unwillingness to act in the best interest of graduate students... I feel that your integrity as a Graduate Student Association appointee has been compromised by accepting gifts in the form of open bar tabs from Student Association leadership, keeping information related to Sub-Board from the GSA leadership, and extending and allowing preferential treatment to Student Association over the other student governments including GSA."

Comment from SA President Peter Grollitsch about SA providing Razy Kased with an open bar tab:

"That's totally untrue. I was actually pretty disappointed when I heard that. That's totally, totally false. Anybody can check any of the books. There's never been any bar tabs or anything like that. You obviously can't spend student money on that, nor would we...Razy is a friend of mine...It's possible that I bought him a drink once or twice, but by no means was that an open bar tab or paid for by students...I'm very disappointed and kind of disturbed that Rachel (Dwyer) would accuse myself and Razy of that. Rachel knows me pretty well. I hope that she would have thought better of me...I would love to see any evidence she has for this."

Quotes from The Spectrum's April 7, 2008 news article about Razy Kased:

"In my opinion, he wasn't doing his job and he wasn't representing the best interest of graduate students." -Rachel Dwyer, Graduate Student Association President

"When somebody's not working in graduate students' best interest, even if they are in an E-board position, then it kind of negates the point." - Rachel Dwyer, Graduate Student Association President

"He was doing his job [and] doing what he was supposed to do...It was really sad when he had to go and it was because of politics." -Greg Stern, Sub Board I, Inc. President

"Objectively, I feel that Rachel made a pretty big mistake. You want somebody to represent you no matter what." -Greg Stern, Sub Board I, Inc. President

"Objectively, I feel that Rachel made a pretty big mistake." -Greg Stern, Sub Board I, Inc. President

"As president, I think he fulfilled his responsibilities to the corporation in terms of managing affairs between board meetings, being involved, interacting with staff, visiting our various departments, sitting on committees, coming in and signing purchase orders and documents on a timely basis. So I think he was very effective." -Bill Hooley, Executive Director of Sub Board I, Inc.

Edit Note

When The Spectrum contacted GSA President Rachel Dwyer on Thursday, April 10, she refused to comment.

Following The Spectrum's initial coverage of Dwyer's firing of Razy Kased, GSA officials complained that the reporting was biased in favor Kased.

The Spectrum is concerned that people are missing the issue. The GSA executive board is abusing its power. There isn't a legislative check on the executive branch of the GSA government.

GSA officials only say that Kased lied. What did he lie about? You've listed your grievances against him, but where is the evidence? In an interview, Dwyer said, "This is a disciplinary matter that I don't really wish to discuss."

The Spectrum can only report the information it's given. Until then, it appears that Kased is the victim of a blatant breach of ethics.