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CCNY'S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER   MAY 2000 VOLUME 2, NUMBER 5

USG sweep!
After Split, City 2000 Slate Wins All Eight Executive Positions and Ombudsperson Position
by Shumon Alam and Rob Wallace

From April 11 through 13, small minorities of CCNY undergraduate and graduate students voted to elect their student governments for the 2000–2001school year. Undergraduate students chose the “City 2000” slate over its rival “Unity”. With Jason Compton at the top of its ticket, “City 2000” won all positions on the Executive Board. Only 1037 undergraduate students, or about 10% of the undergraduate body, participated in the election.
Compton beat out current USG president Rafael Dominguez by 183 votes, 543–360. Other electees include Hanna Seifu-Teferra as Executive Vice President, Elvin Christian as Treasurer, Daphney Leveille as VP for Campus Affairs, Nichele Nivens for VP of Academic Affairs, Romanos Eleny for VP of University Affairs, Rudy Diaz for VP of Community Affairs, and Kilsis Saint-Hilaire for VP of Evening Affairs. Sayfullah El won the Ombudsperson position.

On the night of April 13, the Student Election Review Committee (SERC) announced the results in the NAC Rotunda. Members of the “City 2000” slate were jubilant. For a complete vote breakdown, see the nearby chart.
For the Graduate Student Council, the graduate student government, “Building Bridges” pocketed victory without any opposition—now that’s democracy! An even lower proportion of the graduate student body bothered to vote for the incumbent slate, a marker of their inability or lack of desire to energize their constituents. Only about 90 out of 2000 grad students voted. That’s 4.5 % of the total grad student body.

A Split in the USG

Compton and many other members of “City 2000” were elected last year as members of the Y2K slate, which had Rafael Dominguez as its president. But during the year, a split developed between Dominguez and his fellow Executive Board members.

This semester USG Senate members challenged Dominguez for what they considered was undemocratic decision-making on his part. Dominguez was accused of partiality in allotting funding to student groups, obstructing other executive members from performing their duties, and imposing office rules without the consent of the Senate. A few months ago, VP of Campus Affairs Mohammad Saif Islam sent a memo banning all member organizations of the Media Board from using USG’s xerox machine for mass copies. Sayfullah El, a USG senator elected Ombudsperson, wrote in The Campus that the manipulative Dominguez, who she dubbed “Rafael Giuliani,” ordered Islam to write this memo.

Dominguez denied the charges, telling The Messenger that the USG xerox machine had been way “overused.” Moreover, Dominguez continued, the Media Board, with a huge, unspent budget surplus, can more than afford a xerox machine of its own.

Compton told The Messenger the reason for convening a slate against Dominguez was the lack of communication and coordinated activity by current officials. There were only two Senate meeting this past semester. There are supposed to be two each mouth. Only one E-Board meeting was called during this spring semester.

Many members feel that the student government did not operate openly in such a way that everyone could participate. According to Compton, at one time a good friend of Dominguez, “The president tried to control all the decisions and many decisions were made without consulting any members of the government.”

A member of the “City 2000” slate told The Messenger that the stipend for one executive officer was withheld without much discussion. Current VP for Community Affairs Christina Cocheo told The Messenger that her stipend was withheld because she failed to turn in her report on her work to the Executive Vice President. She was not aware of the split until the student slates were formed for the election.

The particulars in the split seem less interesting than the context. Sometimes splits develop because factions are genuinely repulsed by the leadership or there is a true division in political view. Sometimes disputes over stipends and office supplies manifest the divisions that are necessary to launch electoral challenges to a leadership.

Sometimes splits arise because group members have failed to address or feel powerless against a common enemy, which in this case would be the campus administration, CUNY Central, and/or Giuliani, Pataki, et al. In other words, groups that feel powerless become cannibalistic. Sometimes it’s a melange of causes.

The Future

Compton thinks the members of the newly elected government worked well as a team during the past year and during the elections and that they will continue on that path. It is necessary to point out, however, that the dissidents, even with their problems with Dominguez, were the majority on the E-Board, yet failed to involve the student body in college affairs. The numbers of votes cast speaks to the students’ lack of involvement. Did the USG do to all students what the dissident faction alleged Dominguez did to them?

Admitting this failure, Compton asserted that he and the newly elected government would try its best to get students involved. “Because City is a commuter college, it is harder to organize,” Compton told the Messenger. “We have to work harder. I want to work with all groups within City College and within CUNY,” he continued.

Dominguez, who told The Messenger he had no hard feelings for the victorious slate, warned that the next student government would have to contend with a series of bad plans the administration had in the pipeline.
The Messenger wishes the next USG good luck.

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