The_Rambler_1989-09-14

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F l a m b l e p
Interview With Student Government
President - Perry Brown
By Steve Conley
Rambler Editor-in-Chief
Recently, the current Student Govern-ment
Association President, Perry Brown, took
time out of his hectic pre-semester schedule in
order to talk to the Rambler. The Rambler hopes
that this interview will give the students a better
idea of the student, the goals, and the policies that
represent the entire student body.
Rambler: What are your main goals as
SGA president?
Brown: One, that we set a fall agenda.
That's what the whole executive board decided
we wanted to do. The executive board decided
that inter-group communication was utmost, it's
number one. We feel that there wasn't enough
communication between the Fully Funded Units
(Organizations directly funded by SGA) and the
Student Government and between the Fully
Funded Units and administration and other por-tions
of campus life. We want to establish a
communications group. We want everybody to
know what everybody else is doing, so there is no
duplication. Number two, we want to establish a
multi-cultural feel to our campus and our student
government. We live in a multi-cultural society,
very pluralistic, and our campus reflects that, in
population, but it doesn't reflect that in group
interaction. Perfect example, we had question
and answer program for incoming freshman, and
a professor brought up an interesting point. He
said, it's ironic you sitting in the middle, all the
white students on the left and all the black stu-dents
on the right! I thought about that, that
basically sums up our problem as a society, and
our problem as a campus. We need better com-munication
and more cultural sensitivity. We
have Asians on our campus, we have people of
West Indian, East Indian descent, we have people
of various ethnic groups, and I don't see those
people being represnted much, so I feel it's a
necessity as a student govemment, to reach out to
other groups on campus. Forget even racial or
Student Government President- Perry Brown
ethnic life, we need to communicate more be-tween
commuter and dorm students. It seems
that commuters feel left out on our campus.
Commuters pay fees (Student Activities Fee) too
and we need to bring them back into campus life.
They don't seem to be very involved. And I, as
a commuter, would like to see that happen. Also
on our agenda, is to upgrade facilities on campus,
like Clinton Dining Hall, Roosevelt Hall, and
make this place a place for students. That's
basically what we want to do as a Student Gov-emment.
Make it a place for students.
Rambler: How do you expect the Stu-dent
Govemment Association of 1989-1990 to
differ from the SGA of last year?
Ferry Brown: In many ways. Number
one, I see it as an active Student Govemment and
not as a passive Student Govemment. The Stu-dent
Govemment of last year was very passive. It
dispensed funds and sat back. This year, we'd
like the students to become active in Student
Govemment and become true participants in
SGA. I feel that SGA is a place where students
can practice real world skills. In Student Govem-ment
you leam communication skills, the Treas-urer
leams how to balance budgets, you can leam
how to run an unit, and how to handle people. All
these things are very important to student gov-emment.
This year, hopefully, I would like to see
it become a place that students can call home and
not a place that exists and spends student's
money.Rambler: What do you intend to accom-plish
in the fall semester?
Brown: In the fall semester, first thing, is
to try to upgrade Roosevelt Hall, that's the first
thing. The second thing is to get the Fully Funded
Units everything they need to accomplish their
goals. Third, we would like to reach out again to
every fraction of this campus, to make it work as
a whole, and make Farmingdale a true university.
That is definitely what we want to do in the fall.
Because we feel if we let the Fully Funded Units
do what they do best, in their respective places,
and we give them the financial support, it will, no
matter what, make life better for the students on
campus without Student Govemment interfer-ence.
Student Govemment doesn't need to be an
Please See President on Page 7