Despite the absence of delegate Thomas Martin and SA President Anthony Burgio, UB secured a seat this weekend on the SUNY Student Association's high-level executive committee, a move that Burgio hopes will help land a UB representative in the president's position next semester.
"Our objective was to gain a spot on the executive committee because we're not satisfied with the way SUNY SA is being run," Burgio said.
Burgio was unable to attend the group's annual fall conference because of other obligations, but said it is not unusual for UB's SA president to not attend.
Burgio stressed that his absence would not stop himself or the delegates from getting involved in SUNY SA, which acts as the student voice to the SUNY Board of Trustees. The SUNY SA President serves as the lone student on the SUNY Board of Trustees.
Burgio believes, however, the organization is run too poorly to be effective.
"It's a sham organization in my opinion, and it's going to be up to UB to take on a leadership level," he said. "The organization has an identity crisis. It doesn't even know itself what it should be doing."
Burgio added that the students currently in charge are great personally, but are just not doing their job professionally.
"They have something that's potentially very powerful, and can be very effective, but it's run like a high school government," he said.
'Absolutely Great' for UB
Prior to this weekend, UB did not have a seat on the executive committee, which includes the E-board and essentially runs the organization. Unlike the Student Assembly, which meets once a semester and includes delegates from all 64 SUNY schools, the executive committee meets once a month. Not including the E-board, there are over 12 executive delegate positions, two of which are saved for students from UB, Binghamton, Albany or Stony Brook, the university centers of SUNY.
With one seat open, UB delegate Robert Batdorf won the executive position.
"Hopefully if things go well, we can position ourselves to have a trustee in place in the spring, which is our next goal," Burgio said.
Batdorf called the win "absolutely great" for UB. The last UB student to hold the president's position was former SA President George Pape.
"Now we were have a say and know what's going on," he said. "We will be able to hold the executive board accountable if they are not living up to their duties, and get the issues for this campus heard at the state level."
According to Batdorf, campus issues were not the main concern of this weekend's conference, which was held at the Friar Tuck Inn resort in the Catskills. One of the chief orders of business was to vote on a new vice president and treasurer, which Batdorf said the UB delegates weren't informed of until they arrived. Also discussed was a student empowerment program called Project Snapshot, and the issue of a SUNY-wide smoking ban in dorms, which wouldn't affect UB since it already has such a ban.
"Basically you vote on various amendments and resolutions," Batdorf said. "Discussions will take place between those (votes) when you give your opinions, especially with regard to your own school."
Another issue raised was the SUNY SA Web site, which was updated before the conference.
"That's the first time it's really been updated in two years, so even if students are interested and want information, they can't get that," Batdorf said.
Batdorf said he proposed a Web site separate from the SUNY one, and he also proposed that these conferences be held at different campuses instead of resorts in the mountains, since one of the points of SUNY SA is for schools to learn about each other and become stronger through the knowledge of how different student governments work.
A Missing Delegate
While both Batdorf and Burgio called the conference a success for UB, Batdorf said it almost became a failure because of the absence of Thomas Martin.
Without Martin and Burgio, UB only had three votes, which brought it down to the equal of Albany and Binghamton during the vote for the vacant executive seat. Batdorf said he got lucky because one of the other delegates voted for him, but if Martin had attended there wouldn't have been a chance to lose.
"I shouldn't have won. Realistically, they should've voted for their own guy," he said. "The problem is that this is the first representative we've really had throughout the year, and this is an organization that has the potential to have great, major influence on the SUNY system."
Following the conference, Batdorf suggested that Martin resign for not fulfilling his commitment to the delegate position. Delegates Martin, Russell Cox, and Emily Johnston each receive a $1,000 stipend. Batdorf receives $1,500 since he attended the conference last spring.
"While I can understand Bob's frustration," Burgio said, "I do think that Thomas Martin should have point of view come across. There may have been a legitimate reason why he couldn't attend."
Burgio said he would be meeting later this week with Martin, who did not return The Spectrum's phone calls.
"As far as resigning, it's going to be up to him, of course," Burgio said. "Clearly all the delegates have a considerable amount of work to do."
Delegate Emily Johnston said the absence of two of UB's representatives didn't have any direct effect on the conference.
"It didn't hinder us in any way," Johnston said.
Problems and Promise
In the eyes of Burgio, the next step is to put a UB student in the president's chair, which means finding a delegate to run since all the current ones are graduating.
Burgio said last year, no advance notice was given and the presidential vote was shady. "It was clearly set up to keep Stephanie (Gross, SUNY SA President) in her office," Burgio said. "Her motives were understandable, but not excusable."
Batdorf also expressed many concerns, especially over communication. If communication is bad within SUNY SA, he said, how are average students supposed to know what's going on?
"It's like a citizen of a state not knowing who the president of the United States is," he said. "This is pretty major, serious stuff, and we need people who are going to take it seriously."
Until the vote in the spring, Burgio said there is a lot of work to be done in the various committees, such as student life and diversity. Ultimately, Burgio hopes UB students, with their "practical experience" in a complex student government, will steer SUNY SA in the right direction.
"We're a more mature university in a lot of different ways," Burgio said. "And I think that typically our leaders, though not all of them, are of a better stock."
Delegate Russell Cox did not return The Spectrum's calls.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
