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BY MARTHA MARRAZZA

In print | Published March 30, 2006

Difficulties with the Student Council appointments process have plagued George Hang ’07’s tenure as the new Appointments Chair. Former council members have expressed grievances about structural issues related to the Council and have generated a petition proposing that students reconsider the processes and function of Student Council.

Currently, not all committee appointments for the spring 2006 semester are filled, with some appointments even delayed until next semester.

“The committees facing the most pressing needs are up-to-date thanks to emergency appointments done earlier this semester,” Hang said. “All other committees are not up-to-date because of … the rocky transition from the previous appointments chair.”

Former appointments chair Ethan Ucker ’07 commented on the extreme demands placed on the appointments chair, a reflection of what he sees as an illogical Student Council structure. “Appointments chair is a position with an unreasonably disproportionate amount of power,” Ucker said.

“The whole system of making appointments … should be reconsidered, not just adhered to unquestioningly,” he said. “Instead of scrambling to find short-term solutions to these problems semester after semester, we should look critically at the larger, systematic sources of these problems.”

Inherent problems with the job distribution of its members aside, Student Council co-president Tom Evnen ’07 said many of the appointments delays at the end of last semester and at the beginning of this semester had to do with issues that cropped up during the transition between former appointments chair Ucker and his successor.

“To his credit, Ethan developed and worked very hard to develop a functioning database of all appointments information during his term,” Evnen said. "However, to his detriment I’d say, he has for reasons passing understanding failed to relinquish that database to George upon George’s election.

“That failure of Ethan’s to transfer the appointments database to George has meant that George is essentially flying blind,” Evnen said.

“He doesn’t know which committees have people appointed to them, which need more appointees and if so, how many. Additionally, he doesn’t even have a complete list of which committees actually exist. I have to say, George has done an excellent job compiling the information again. It has delayed the appointments process, though.”

Ucker, however, said that he along with other council members ironed out any major appointments issues before his term ended.

“The appointments process is not being delayed now, and having these discussions about the role of Student Council will not delay it further,” he said.

“At the end of last semester there was one big round of appointments. We had some things carry over from that round to the beginning of this semester, as members of the appointments committee, including myself, left certain delegated tasks unfinished.”

“Fortunately, the system I had set up allowed room for this lag. But all that has now been worked out, and no new appointments are needed until the end of this semester,” Ucker said.

Ucker, who lost an election in the fall to “none of the above” and chose not to run in the subsequent special election, gave a list of reasons justifying his decision not to turn over his database to Student Council.

“The point of an election is to evaluate someone’s performance — my performance as appointments chair, for example, to which the database that I developed is substantially connected. My performance as appointments chair was rejected by the student body,” Ucker said.

“Thus, the database I had developed, the manner in which I had led the appointments committee and all other things connected with my job as appointments chair were rejected. Thus I am unwilling to simply hand over what is a failed database,” he said.

“Because no appointments need to be made until the end of this semester, not having a database now does not hurt anyone or complicate anything. So I don’t feel bad about holding onto the database until these larger questions about the role of Student Council are answered,” Ucker said.

Evnen agreed with Ucker in that all needed appointments were made last semester, with a few stipulations, but he said that not having the database this semester has confused the process.

“Ethan did make all appointments at the end of last semester, but the problem is that as the appointments chair he decided to split up committee decisions so individual sections could make appointments and report back to him. He’s the only one with a complete set of information,” Evnen said. “In some cases appointments were made, but [the statement that appointments were finished] is misleading because due to his inaction, they weren’t carried through. Appointees weren’t all informed of appointments made.”

Ucker said the process, not his role in it, led to some gaps in appointment notification. “For various reasons — miscommunication on my part and on the part of other members of the appointments committee, tasks delegated to the expanded appointments committee not getting done or being delayed until the beginning of this semester — the information about appointments at the end of last semester was not disseminated properly,” Ucker said.

In an effort to pick up the pieces, Hang said he created a new appointments database, this semester, he said. “I have been forced to recreate the entire database and the worst part about the situation is that I know that this information already exists and could be given to me with minimal effort,” Hang said.

“I want to apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused for some applicants, chairs and concerned members of the community.”

In light of the inefficiency surrounding the appointments process and other Student Council functions, Hunter Bandy ’07 and Joella Fink ’07, two former Student Council members, crafted a petition calling for a revamping of the current council structure.

Bandy said they hope that the petition will encourage council members to engage students in an open dialogue on the issue in the form of a referendum. The two were due to present the petition and their qualms with the current system at the Student Council meeting last night. The meeting took place after The Phoenix went to press.

Fink said the current structure and all of its underlying issues deterred her from running for Student Council again. “I don’t think the current structure is effective,” she said.

“What it all boils down to is that when 11 people are in a room and they have all been elected, they feel like they all have to speak. We don’t present our arguments to the student body, so they don’t know what we’re talking about. I feel that it would be a better system if there were less people.”

While Fink said she thinks a smaller council would be more effective, the petition serves to instigate overall discussion on the issue rather than lobby for a particular alternative to the current system.

“We think a different system would make more sense for Student Council, considering the size of our student body,” Fink said.

“I could go with either much smaller or much larger, but the current number doesn’t make much sense. It hasn’t worked for years, and I think that’s pretty acknowledged at this point.”

Bandy and Fink hope that the issues their petition raises will inspire a Student Council referendum. “If a referendum is proposed, it has to happen in two weeks, so we are putting the ball in their court,” Bandy said. “Student Council has to decide how to engage students and take submissions, and who will sit down and design a new structure. If it’s approved, then Student Council can carry it out.”

Evnen declined to comment on the petition before Bandy and Fink presented their claims to Student Council. “The Council is hearing about this proposal on Wednesday [March 29] when Hunter and Joella will be formally presenting it to us,” he said. “For that reason, it would be premature to take an official position on the issue before Hunter and Joella have had the opportunity to officially make their case to council.”

Fink said the petition takes into account that some students might favor upholding the current state of Student Council.

“At the end of the process, people will have the opportunity to either vote for a new system or uphold the status quo,” Fink said. “I think this is a good opportunity to legitimize whatever it is that Student Council is. It hasn’t been done in quite a few years.”

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