The_Rambler_1996-11-12

              state University of New York at Farmrigdale Volume 69* Issue 14* Novptnhpr 17 lOQ/il Student Leaders Speak Out About SGA By Elder Jacques Jr.
If you're like me, you are one
of the many students concerned with
what is going on with our a Student
Government Association. All students
who pay to go to this institute for higher
learning have the right to know and
understand what goes on behind the
closed doors of the SGA office.
One of the biggest concerns
of students is when the allocated funds
forthe 1996 school year are being put
louse.
A student most concerned
with this question is Carl Alacqna, the
president of WCTF, the Farmingdale
radio station, Mr. Alacqna has been
pleading with staff for more ftmding in
order to modernize the radio station.
His ultimate goal for the station would
be to be able to transmit at least on AM
frequency to pick up a bigger listening
audience. As it is, only Roosevelt Hall
and a few of the dorms can pick up the
radio station. Mr. Alacqna claims that
out of all the fully funded units; organi-zations
with a preset budget, they have
tiie most amount of members, but tiie
least amount of money. Carl quotes
that "I have nothing against SGA, but
they should be more organized and at-tentive
to the coUective student body."
I also spoke with Melissa
Jackson the treasurerof IDC (Inter Dor-mitory
Council) anotiier fully fimded
unit who gripes about lack of Funding.
IDC however feels that SGA works
hard for the student body and doesn't
get the credit they deserve. Altiiough
IDC would like
to organize more
activities for
members of IDC to shoulder all of tiie
problems. We are not the only people
living in the domis.
On a similar note, I recently
visited tiie student lounge in Roosevelt
Hall. I was appalled
by the conditions of
tiie lounge. The gar-bage
looked as if it
hadn't been picked
dorm students,
tiiey feel tiiat it
is not SGA's
fault for not
having tiie money. Ms. Jackson would
like students to know that whenever
there are concerns involving the dorms,
IDC is tiie place to go. She quotes that
"a lot of people have a lot to say about
tiie conditions of tiie dorms, but tiiey
don't want to do anytiiing about it. They
are not wiUing to woric togetiier for tiie
betterment of ttie dorms. They think
tiiat it is the job of tiie executive board
up in weeks, and tiie
bathrooms were
about 10 times as
bad. Durine an in-terview
with Clyde Vanel, president of
tiie SGA, he mentioned tiiat tiie mainte-nance
of tiie building was not tiie re-sponsibility
of SGA. In fact, he said tiiat
Sandy Lori Snyder and Terry Esnes
Johnson, tiie administrators directiy in-volved
witii student activities, held tiie
responsibility for the maintenance of
Roosevelt Hall.
Darnel J. Wallace, president of
University At Buffalo Student Wins 1996 SUNY
System-Wide Legal Essay Contest
An honors student at the State Uni-versity
at Buffalo who has been selected for
aprcsugiousU.S. Supreme Court internship
has won tiie Benjamin and David Scharps
Memorial Prize. Mark A. Haddad, a resi-dent
of Hicksville, New York, Is beginning
his senior year at Buffalo and intends to
apply to law school. The Scharps Prize is
awarded each year to the student who writes
tiie best essay on an assigned legal topic.
The essay competition, administered by S tate
University System Administration, is open
to juniors tiiroughout the Stale University
system who are considering a legal career.
"Excellent and elegantiy written;
clearly argued," said one of the judges on the
Scharps Selection Committee in comment-ing
on Mr. Haddad's essay on tiie topic:
Expert Testimony and New Technologies,
Inside and Outside the Courtroom. The
essay dealt witii the admissibility of vide-otape
analysis by an expert witness as legal
evidence in a tiieft case. The Scharps Selec-tion
Committee is composed of academics
and attorneys.
This semester, Mr. Haddad is doing
an internship in the Clerk's Office of the
United States Supreme Court as part of tiie
State University of New York Washington
program. At Buffalo, he maintains a grade
pointaverage of 3.83 and has pursued a dual
major in political science and philosophy
with a minor in general management. To be
admitted to tiie honors program at Buffalo,
Mr. Haddad needed to maintain a 93% high
school average and had to score at least
1360 on his combined verbal and matiie-matics
Scholastic Aptitude Tests.
The Scharps Competition awards
a $1,000 cash prize and a commemorative
plaque to the recipient. The competition is
made possible by a bequest from the will of
Hannah S. Hirschhom, the sister of Ben-jamin
and David Scharps.
This fall the Scharps Selection
Committee will select a legal topic for next
year's competition. Past topics have in-cluded
'The Separation of Church and
State," *The Right to Privacy," "Equality of
Education Opportunity and Freedom of Ex-pression,"
'The First Amendment and Cen-sorship
of the Arts," "The Environment v.
The Economy," and "Whose Best Interests:
Custody Ri^ts for tiie Non-traditional
Family."
CSO ( Caribbean Students Organization)
feels tiiat SGA is doing a good job for all
students and clubs. CSO is a seeded unit,
which means tiiat tiiey don't have a pro-posed
budget. But when problems with
funding occur they can turn to SGA for
help. CSO writes to stress that they are not
a discriminatory organization, everyone is
welcome. Their motto is "togetiier we
aspire and togetiier we achieve."
The secretary of the Campus Ac-tivities
Board, Latoshu Fink also agrees
I witii Darnell Wallace's statement tiiat
SGA is working hard for tiie student
body. CAB, one of tiie most active clubs
on campus, plans social and educational
I activities for dorm and commuter stu-dents.
The only times problems arise is
when tiie administrative staff; Terry
Esnes Johnson, Sandy Lori Snyder and
Dean Feurgeson, clash heads witii SGA.
It seems to me that this is happening more
often, and that administratives needed to
realize that students come first.
Finally I spoke witii Clyde Vanel;
this year's elected Student Government
Association president The question I was
hard pressed to ask him was where our
Student Activities Fee was going. Every
fiill and part-time student has paid an $80
fee for activities and we all want to know
what's being done with it. President Vanel
explained that the activities fees were going
to tiie funding of all tiie fully funded units
continued on page 13
New York Student
Groups To Rally
Against Racism
This fall students in New York will
use three littie words, written over 200 years
ago, to fight for Uiie justice: We The People.
The Student of Color Network, an
association of ethnic suident groups from ten
differentcolleges in the Albany area, will alunch
a year-long crusade against racism.
The theme "We The People" was taken
from the preamble of the Constitution of the
United States, which states tiiat justice and
equality should be established to ensure a per-fect
union of tiie states.
"The Constitution is supposed to be
tiie basis of freedom in tiie United States," said
Atiiena Jones, a member of tiie Student of Color
Network. "But when you have racism, it inhib-its
that freedom for some."
continued on page 4