Today’s article on Travis Mason’s plans for the Student Association is the first in a four-part series outlining the state of SA and problems it faces. Click here for the corresponding editorial.Travis Mason dragged his cursor across the projection screen in Maxwell Auditorium two weeks ago, scribbling red lines on a flow chart to lay out his plan for the future of the Student Association.

The SA president’s restructuring proposal, which he says will interest more students and make the organization more effective, changes the titles of several positions and redefines the roles of three assembly sub-committees. Mason has also introduced a series of meetings, called the Student Organizational Committee, to converse with the leaders of campus groups.

Former SA comptroller Maggie Misztal has criticized the plan, saying it fails to address the core causes of SA’s dwindling membership and the shortfalls in the budget process that allocates money from the student fee.

‘The restructuring isn’t a big overhaul. It’s a combination of name changes and duty shifts,’ Mason said. ‘What we’re trying to do is divide power among more people. Instead of just being reactive, we’ll be proactive and reactive.’

These sub-committees already exist within SA, but Mason said they will now have clearly defined purposes.

‘We want to empower the committee people in the seats to do something,’ he said. ‘I think this is the ideal structure to do that.’

Mason said the new structure will put students, including those who do not vote within SA, into positions where they can learn about the organization and its mission while they work on projects they are passionate about.

‘We haven’t been doing the best job in getting everyone involved,’ he said. ‘We haven’t done enough to engage people out of their regular roles at the meetings.’

Former SA president Drew Lederman said these special committees are very important but that there was not enough participation to make them a reality last year. He said Mason is able to do this now because he recruited new members before he took office.

Mason said he wants look out for the future and make sure his restructuring plan will last once he and Vice President Eric Crites are gone. SA has already begun to establish the committees, and Mason said he hopes to have the restructuring plan finalized by the end of the month.

Despite Mason’s plan for reform, Misztal said students are missing opportunities because of the problems she sees within the Student Association.

‘It really is a pointless organization,’ Mistzal said. ‘The Finance Board is the only thing that has an actual purpose. SA is not really doing anything.’

Mistzal described the format of assembly meetings as one of SA’s biggest problems. The meetings do not engage the assembly members and consist mostly of reports from cabinet members about what they have done in the past week, she said.

Twelve of 20 assembly members attended the most recent meeting on Feb. 9 to vote on the Finance Board’s budget recommendations, which included a $100,000 funding proposal for University Union Concerts. The assembly is designed to hold 50 members. The number of active members who attended was one more than the minimum necessary to do business.

‘Unless someone gets involved, they are not reached out to get involved,’ Misztal said.

Roy Baker, associate dean of students and primary adviser to SA, said the low voter turnout for SA presidential elections is proof that students don’t see the organization as a powerful and influential governing body.

‘I think (SA) should want to become a little more visible,’ Baker said. ‘They want to be perceived as a group who has interaction with the administration. My job as adviser is to help them and give them give advice. If I feel they are going down the wrong road I have to help them.’

Baker said he believes Mason can accomplish many things through his initiatives because he is ‘a real go-getter.’

‘Travis is the right man at the right time. He just doesn’t give up,’ Baker said. ‘He knows exactly what the perceptions are, and he wants to change that, and I think that’s great.’

To help engage other groups on campus, Mason organized a meeting of the leaders of all of the student groups on campus, something he said SA has been trying to get off the ground for years.

Mistzal said the success of the Student Organizational Committee depends on the structure of the committee, and she said she hopes it doesn’t build unnecessary bureaucracy.

‘I really don’t have a lot of faith,’ she said.

Mistzal also said if Mason combined the idea behind the SOC with the structure of SA – creating seats for specific interests, such as greek and off-campus issues, rather than for colleges within the university – students will be more likely to get involved.

A major concern for both Mason and Misztal is the Finance Board, the body that makes budget recommendations for all student organizations on campus.

Mason said he recognizes there are problems with the Finance Board, such as the timetable for budget deliberations and allocations, the structure of the board and the procedure by which it is run.

As part of the newly formed SOC, he and Crites are putting together a task force which will look at the Finance Board and make recommendations to SA within the next two-and-a-half months.

‘SU is unique in the amount of money we give out and how it is allocated,’ Mason said. ‘Here we have a lot of freedom, and when you have a lot of freedom there are more people you are accountable to.’

Mason said he realized it was time to begin reevaluating the Finance Board because groups are consistently unhappy with the budget outcome.

‘When everybody’s upset, there is something wrong,’ he said.

Baker said he is confident in Mason’s approach to the problems with the Finance Board.

‘Travis is understanding you can’t reinvent the wheel overnight,’ Baker said.

But Misztal said she felt the task force was more or less pointless.

‘We all know there are problems,’ she said. ‘You don’t need to make a task force to make recommendations.’

Mistzal said one of the problems is that SA and the Finance Board are not interrelated and that there is no sense of unity between the groups.

‘The Finance Board could operate better as its own operation,’ Mistzal said. ‘Unless (SA and the Finance Board) start to work together, nothing is going to get fixed.’

And Mason, who officially implemented his plan at the Jan. 29 assembly meeting, hopes he is on track to fixing SA for good.

‘We’ve become just another body – another body who gives out money,’ Mason said. ‘We’re trying to make SA a genuine governing body, and right now I don’t think we’re doing what we have the ability to do.’

Published on February 13, 2005 at 12:00 pm