It was an interesting semester, but that's putting it mildly. The senate and executive branches - as opposed to a judicial branch, which ASUAF does not have, mind you - saw success and failure. These ups and downs were also experienced by the various directors and non-elected worker bees of the student government hive.
Since it's the season for giving, let's start out with the successes:
The biggest change the senate made this semester was in overhauling club council - the abhorred funding mechanism of UAF's 80+ active clubs. A better word then "overhauling" would be "eliminating." The senate - which ASUAF president Mari Freitag was keen to point out - created the council and could thus disband it at will.
Taking the place of the old congressional-style organization is an "ad hoc" committee. I place "ad hoc" in quotes because there is nothing "ad hoc" about a permanent committee. While I have stated on this blog before how much I supported doing-away with the council (adding that it would give the senate an automatic B in my grade book), what has been created in it's stead is worrisome, if only for it's lack of specificity. At the risk of repeating what I wrote in an article for The Sun Star, the committee does not provide for how it's members are selected or what the criteria for selection should be. If this is fixed in a timely fashion (i.e. over break or early in the spring semester) potential issues can be avoided. If it isn't, Jay Leonard (who I spoke to for the aforementioned article) will be right in interpreting this new committee as simply a power play by the senate; concentrating authority into the hands of a few senators and club representatives while stripping the majority of club-going students of rights. A key tool in the power-play rule book is smoke: be vague and you can interpret A to be B.
Rights, it is worth noting, are no where noted (har har) or enshrined anywhere in the ASUAF constitution or bylaws.
A very minor success - mostly for the senate and mildly for the students as a whole - was getting the word out that ASUAF existed. (Although, the response to questions on this semester's election ballot, would lead one to think that they have a lot of work ahead of them.) The senate was prompt in hiring Rosemary Paz as it's public relations director and Freitag was eerily wise in picking Josh Banks for government relations director. Banks, it should be noted, is a former ASUAF senator and can be found scattered throughout the ASUAF minutes of several years ago.
Eerily wise or simply astute, either way, Freitag picked the person most suited for the job. While tall, Banks is very unassuming and oddly un-charismatic. I reference his height because John Adams, our nations second POTUS, joked about fellow Virginian George Washington's knack for finding employment in the revolutionary cause, that being because he was always the tallest man in a room.
However, presidents aside, Banks has proved his suitableness for the job by organizing a pre-election debate and a post-election legislative meet-and-greet. While the debate was apparently lackluster the meet-and-greet was a roaring success; every Fairbanks legislator attended, the room was packed, and the event even received a write-up from the city daily. I will add that I felt a certain pity for the student government (and director Banks himself) - the only mention of who put on the legislative chat was to be found in two photo captions, but not in the article itself.
In essence, ASUAF was successful this year thanks to Josh Banks and SB 177-018, which disbanded club council. Will those dual successes hold weight against the failures?
Check back soon to find out.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
Unsubscribe? ERROR 404
Apparently, it is impossible to unsubscribe from President Gamble's listserve. I've spoken to Kate Ripley and Izzy Martinez at Public Affairs about this. Kate sent me a long email detailing they whys of the situation. It sounds like, because he's the president, he needs an open route to all UA staff and faculty email addresses. I'm considering writing something up for the paper, but if I don't, I might just put something up on here.
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