This spring semester has finally come to a close and so has the final chapter of former President Romual Jean-Baptiste’s deceptive actions. The travesties that occurred during his reign have finally come to light and it has both soiled and made a mockery of the USG.

Using student funding for a private ‘presidential discretionary fund’ to purchase office supplies costing over $8,000 is a huge oversight by the USG as well as the Stony Brook Community. But scheming and attempting to frame political opponents only illustrates the corrupt and over the top actions of a dishonest politician deluded by his own power.

Jean-Baptiste lacked the dignity and pride reserved for a position maintaining responsibilities, and one can only hope that the USG Senate’s unanimous decision to remove Jean Baptiste will spring a fresh start to an administration satiated with deceitful actions.

Both the USG, as well as the rest of the campus community is also responsible because of their apathy towards the USG and their actions. If motivated and interested students were more involved and aware of the politics on campus, perhaps Jean-Baptiste would not have been given the opportunity to commit those travesties especially since the USG holds the purse strings to a large sum of money in the form of the student activities fee.

Granted the USG Senate should be commended for discovering and quickly reacting to the corruption that Jean-Baptiste and his team of officers practiced. Perhaps there is still hope for the USG residing under a new administration.

One of the first actions the new USG Senate enacted was passing the new USG budget for the 2007 to 2008 year. Yet, many clubs found a decrease in their funding for the upcoming year while others received a boost in funding. There seemed to be a bias in the form of the amount of money allocated to certain clubs and one has to wonder how the USG made their decisions in granting the proposals.

For instance, the Men’s Rugby Club received about a $15,000 increase in funding.’ Was their recent scandal with the Suffolk Police regarding underage drinking forgiven and forgotten? Other more active organizations suffered a dramatic decrease in funding.

The Senate has made it clear that a fall revision of the budget may change things in the form of the $11,000 reserved for emergency funds. Hopefully, the new regime will learn from the past’s mistakes and make objective decisions rather than choosing undeserving friends.