The Student Association needs to refocus.

This was the common piece of advice three former SA presidents gave for those currently in the organization, as its members look to move past recent internal issues.

Focus on the students. Focus on producing results. Focus on the future.

“Internal issues can be inevitable. There are some things you just have to deal with. They are not always bad, but you need a proper balance of focusing internally and externally to be effective,” said Dylan Lustig, 56th Session president, in an email. “Just focus on what truly counts, continuing the passion for helping students and being involved.”

SA’s focus has been increasingly internal since news broke three weeks ago that President Allie Curtis had kept a non-student, former public relations co-director Colin Crowley, in the organization without informing her cabinet.

This prompted impeachment proceedings against Curtis and the investigation of Curtis and three cabinet members. After a six-hour, closed-door session last Monday, the assembly decided not to continue impeachment proceedings against Curtis by a vote of 29-18. During the vote, four fraudulent ballots were cast. The organization later decided not to revote.

In the days after the impeachment proceedings, Chief of Staff PJ Alampi resigned and Curtis was stripped of her power to preside over assembly meetings, part of a three-pronged disciplinary plan against her.

Lustig also faced internal issues during his first semester as SA president when his chief of staff, Taylor Carr, resigned. As a result, most of his first semester was very internally focused, but he said Carr’s resignation was a “wake-up call.”

“After his resignation, we looked outward, we looked toward the students we represented, and things seemed to be quite easily sailing from then on,” he said.

But Lustig pointed out that fixing internal issues makes SA more efficient as a governing body, which then enables it to better focus on outside issues.

Though these internal conflicts might have damaged SA’s reputation on campus, Lustig said SU students need to remember that these issues involve only a small section of those in SA, and that many other members and non-members continue to work toward improving the university.

“They are the ones who keep SA going, and they will never quit, and they will rise above what’s been happening,” he said. “This mess will pass, that I promise, they just need to keep doing their work.”

Neal Casey, 55th Session president, said it’s important for SA cabinet members to learn to work together early so they can spend most of the session working to achieve their goals. During his time as president, Casey held a leadership retreat before the session started so his cabinet could develop as a team and build working relationships.

Going forward, SA needs to focus more on delivering results, he said. One of the biggest things he battled while president was student apathy and getting students to understand that SA cares and does have an effect on campus.

If SA starts to achieve its goals and produce results, Casey said he believes the organization’s reputation on campus will improve. Having worked with other student governments outside of SA, Casey said focusing too much on internal matters is one of the biggest mistakes student governments make.

“A student government that focuses more on how it operates internally will never be able to accomplish anything for the betterment of campus,” he said.

While internal issues within SA are almost unavoidable, they rarely escalate to the point of impeachment proceedings, said Jon Barnhart, 54th Session president.

Every president faces questions from cabinet and assembly members, Barnhart said, and if a president isn’t being questioned, there’s a good chance the president is questioning his or herself.

“I think every president ends up faced with that, and the way they respond to it and grow from it is really what makes each session unique, and what I think makes each session most successful is when they’re able to move past those,” he said.

Barnhart said the best way he found to move past internal issues was to bring up concerns early and have “off-the-record informal conversations” before these concerns turned into formal proceedings.

If these internal concerns become more formalized, they can become a distraction, he said.

Barnhart said it’s unfortunate that many students on campus are hearing about SA for the first time in such a negative way. But, he said, members must work to make sure students “see past the headlines” to the positives of the organization.

With only three weeks left in the semester, it will be difficult to achieve any significant goals, Barnhart said, making this summer a critical period for the 57th Session.

The assembly’s decision not to impeach Curtis means there is some confidence in her leadership, and she needs to capitalize on this during the summer, he said.

“There’s a reason that SA president is a calendar-year position and not an academic-year position,” Barnhart said. “(The summer) is definitely one of the most productive times in terms of being able to take a step back, really look at the initiatives that are going well, look at the ones that need more work, start to reprioritize for the semester coming up.”

The summer is also a good opportunity for Curtis to reconnect with SA members, make sure everyone is on the same page and address any concerns, he said.

Said Barnhart: “Sometimes it’s a good time to play catch-up, but it’s also a great time to get ahead.”

Published on April 10, 2013 at 12:28 am

Contact Jessica: jliannet@syr.edu | @JessicaIannetta