It’s been four weeks since the office of student body president has been vacant and the Graduate Student Association is just one of many agencies that have been left in limbo. Chris Renga has been working for the GSA, a Boca Raton campus agency, since October. The GSA operates under the Agency for Graduate Concerns, or AGC. This agency works to help incoming graduate students get comfortable in their new surroundings, according to Renga. He is frustrated because approximately “20 to 25,000 dollars worth of grants are pending,” said Renga.The student body president has to sign off on these pending grants in order for them to be released. So why hasn’t this been taken care of? Because as of right now, there is no president. While legalities carry on to decide who will run Student Government (SG) for the next year, several graduate students are waiting for their travel, and a couple of research grants in order to pay their bills.Before the Spring term ended, the former student body president and Boca governor were supposed to coordinate the appointing of a new director for the GSA. “That also never happened,” says Renga, and now there are duties not getting taken care of. “The teacher assistant training and orientation have to be planned,” says Renga, who points out that this is the job of the director.Renga is working “a lot more than 20 hours,” the required amount, answering phones and coordinating grants along with other duties.In addition to having no director, there are two other positions that are still vacant. The director is supposed to appoint an information coordinator (who updates the websites) and a northern campus representative (who is the main voice for the two northern campuses). “The two people in those positions graduated and left them open,” says Renga. This is ultimately affecting the way the office is running.Renga is trying his best to get this situation resolved. He went before the UWC – a group of SG’s top 13 leaders – on Friday, May 19 to argue his case. But after about two minutes, there was no quorum and the meeting was adjourned, says Renga.”I’m very annoyed,” he says and hopes that Student Government will resolve this issue and release the money that so many students are waiting on.
Categories:
The Waiting Game
May 31, 2006
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