Larry Seivert’s journey as president of the Student Association’s 53rd session hasn’t been a smooth one. Throughout his term, he has achieved several of his goals, abandoned others and tackled challenges he never planned for. But above all, he worked to bring SA back to the students and to leave the next session with a lasting impression.

‘(Larry) didn’t only want his session to be great, he wants Student Association to be great after he leaves,’ said Tyrone Shaw, chair of the academic affairs committee. ‘Larry really set it up for what’s to come after he’s gone.’

Seivert’s platform included five major goals: improving off-campus transportation, refining the budget process, securing buses to away athletic games, holding town-hall style meetings and increasing the number of merit-based scholarships.

His administration saw some strife, and SA tried to increase awareness about the assembly throughout the campus.

But during Seivert’s administration, the biggest issue he dealt with was one he never anticipated – MayFest. Both last semester and this semester, MayFest was a time consuming issue that students cared about, members agreed.

Last semester, student safety at the annual block party on Euclid Avenue was Seivert’s top priority. SA provided food, water and music on the field by the Women’s Building.

While Seivert’s goal for safety at MayFest was achieved, many SA members did not feel he handled the issue in the right way. He focused his efforts entirely on MayFest, and many other initiatives fell by the wayside, said SA President-elect Jon Barnhart.

This semester, MayFest presented different challenges. SA made a collective effort to hear student concerns regarding the reinstatement of classes, but it also continued to focus on individual committee initiatives. No official statements have been made regarding the re-creation of MayFest, but Seivert said that talks with university administration are heading in a positive direction.

Seivert wanted to expand transportation for off-campus students by increasing awareness of the university’s Shuttle-U-Home service. But making any real improvements in off-campus transportation, Seivert said, is something that requires working with more than 12 different university offices. No significant progress was made on this.

Seivert saw success regarding some of his initial goals. One of these goals was to provide transportation for students to one football, basketball and lacrosse game each year. On Nov. 7, an SA-funded bus took students to the football game at Pittsburgh. Then, on Nov. 20, another bus transported students to watch SU play at Madison Square Garden.

While Seivert officially has no jurisdiction over the budget process, he researched the budget processes of 18 universities to help the assembly develop a more efficient system. Comptroller Lily Mei has been writing out the budget process in a formal manner, something that had not been done before, Barnhart said. Mei also made it mandatory for all student organizations requesting funding to attend mandatory fiscal training.

In his efforts to raise awareness for SA, Seivert wanted to host town-hall style meetings in residence halls. Last semester, SA hosted two of these meetings: About 25 students attended a meeting in Shaw Hall and three students attended a meeting for the off-campus community.

None were held this semester, as the meetings did not generate as much support as SA hoped.

Increasing merit-based scholarships for students is an issue that ‘slid under the bus’ due to a lack of direction and a weak economy, said Shaw, chair of the academic affairs committee.

Cabinet-member resignations and tension within the assembly early in the session hindered progress on the issues. Seivert’s Chief of Staff Helene Kahn resigned early in the session and was replaced by Neal Casey. Vice President Eric Bortz resigned at the end of last semester, and his position was never filled.

At the end of last semester, Robel Yemiru resigned as parliamentarian, but came back this semester. Disagreements over the direction the association was headed led to personal conflicts between Yemiru and Seivert. This semester, Yemiru returned because he felt the association began the semester worse off than it had ended the previous one.

‘I realized that the organization I had believed in for years now was going down a bad path,’ Yemiru said. ‘It wasn’t going anywhere strong, and I had to learn to put aside my differences. Even if I didn’t think we were solving any of the big ticket items, then we at least had to be doing something and we weren’t even doing that.’

Throughout the semester, things have changed.

‘It’s like a lot of clouds just disappeared this semester,’ Seivert said.

Yemiru agreed that as the semester went on, Seivert’s leadership style and the association’s ability to get things done improved.

Last semester, Seivert tried to have a hand in every issue. Cabinet members got to the point where they did not feel comfortable making any decisions when he was not present, Barnhart said.

‘I remember a time when we sat down and said (to Larry), ‘You need to trust the people around you to do their jobs,” said Neal Casey, Seivert’s chief of staff.

This semester, Seivert has taken more of a hands-off approach, allowing the committees to work on their own initiatives. Personal feelings and petty arguments have also been set aside.

‘I didn’t think we were on the right direction,’ Barnhart said. ‘But from what I’ve seen this semester we’ve started to debate the issues themselves more. And I think that’s also improved office morale because people are definitely more comfortable and there’s a lot less tension in the assembly.’

The main theme of Seivert’s administration was increasing student awareness of SA, something members believe he accomplished.

SA has the most members it has had in years. Representatives for the Martin J. Whitman School of Management are at maximum capacity, and the College of Arts and Sciences is a few members away from maximum capacity. Both the School of Architecture and the College of Human Ecology now have representatives, after several years without one.

‘From the beginning, the campaign I ran this year was saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to bring Student Association back to the students.’ It may sound cheesy or corny. I really don’t care what it sounds like,’ Seivert said.

Seivert’s commitment to working with university administrators will also benefit the coming session, Shaw said. Seivert was a successful president, he said, because he worked with the entire university community to ensure that the next session would also be successful.

Looking forward, Seivert plans to be as involved or uninvolved in the 54th session as Barnhart wants him to be. He plans to take a step back and allow Barnhart to establish his own way of running the assembly, he said.

Looking back, Seivert cannot believe his presidency is close to its end.

‘It has been one of the most special experiences of my life,’ he said, ‘and I’m just glad that everybody gave me the chance.’

kronayne@syr.edu

Published on December 7, 2009 at 12:00 pm