Dear Editor,

The first USG Senate meeting of the year has ended; along with any delusions students may have that the Senate would immediately start working on matters directly relevant to students. In fairness to the Senate, however, it is important to address internal USG matters, and I hope that our representatives sort out these issues quickly; so that the bulk of their time is spent discussing matters and taking action that directly benefit us.

The most contentious item on the agenda was the ‘Clarification in Employment Act,’ as well as competing amendments made by Senators Shapiro and Romano. To give the reader some background, the Undergraduate Student Government is composed of three main branches: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial, which are represented by the USG Senate, the USG Executive Council, and the USG Supreme Court and Judiciary Council, respectively. The controversy arises over the Senate’s attempts to limit the increasing numbers of paid assistants to the Executive Council, which have reached unprecedented levels. The bill was eventually referred to committee; essentially giving all sides more time to investigate the issues and reach a compromise, but an important question that deserved answering was ignored, namely, ‘Why were so many aides being hired?’

Executive Council members are obligated to work at least fifteen hours per week, and with few exceptions, their responsibilities are minimal under the constitution. So then, why are student activity fee funds, money that can be funneled to improving clubs or putting on more events on campus, going to these assistants? The Executive Council needs to urgently provide an explanation, in order to prevent the student body from feeling suspicion that the Council is too incompetent, inefficient, or corrupt to do its job properly.

Other internal USG matters were discussed, but with much greater cooperation and less heated debate. As the meeting reached the ‘open agenda’ segment, Senators acknowledged that more important work remained, and promised to focus on matters more relevant to the student body. Hopefully, the Senate will concentrate on expanding ‘PASS,’ the one-on-one tutoring program currently in operation that provides free and personal help to students. Senator Antonelli also announced that the implementation of the ‘ALIRRT’ act, which provides subsidized LIRR tickets to Penn and Jamaica Stations, will begin on February 1st.

If the Senate can manage to run PASS and ALIRRT smoothly, as well as create one or two more programs of interest to students, then it will go a long way to fulfilling the hopes and needs of students. In addition, the Senate will be challenged to legally and efficiently decide next year’s budget, a grueling process that involves meeting with hundreds of clubs and organizations and that requires a great deal of organization and responsibility.

Finally, the Senate will have to make its accomplishments known and raise interest in its hard work for students, so that more students take advantage of the new Senate programs and also in order to increase student participation in student-run campus events and in the many clubs and organizations available to us. Doing so will make students appreciate and participate more in their student government, a process that will keep the organization sustainable and make it more relevant to the student body.

While it is too early to say with any certainty what the future will hold for the Senate, I for one am confident that our representatives will not let us down and will implement a strong program as outlined above. The budget will certainly be a challenge, but the Senate’s budget committee has already dealt with fall allocations, an excellent practice for the more comprehensive Spring hearings.

The Senate will also have to keep ALIRRT and PASS alive, and will likely have to think up of one or two more major programs, in order to prove to constituents that they have done their jobs well. Finally, the Senate must think about the future of the USG organization, something that can be done easily with a calendar of USG-sponsored events that can conveniently list the many programs and club meetings that would be of interest to students and that can provide a simple way of showing the value of the student activity fee that students pay.

If the Senate can achieve these difficult but necessary goals, then it can look forward to being known as the greatest Senate yet, and I would not be surprised if the student body would then take its government much more seriously, participating in greater numbers at its events, attending its meetings, and voting in its elections. Let’s see what happens!

Sincerely yours,

Esam Al-Shareffi