President Bustamante will no longer work with Vice Chancellor
By Dan O'Brien
Collegian Staff
November 13, 2004
Student Government Association President Eduardo Bustamante declared in Wednesday night's weekly SGA meeting that he will not work with the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, Michael Gargano any longer on issues involving the Senate.
"I will not work with Vice Chancellor Gargano from here on out," Bustamante said, as a result of more information being released regarding the recent controversy.
Bustamante's declaration comes one week after two-dozen e-mails were leaked to members of the SGA that showed several conversations between Gargano and former SGA Speaker Patrick Higgins. The e-mails discuss the legality of appointing graduate student Gladys Franco to fill in for Nelson Acosta, the Director of the Office of ALANA (African Latino Asian and Native American) Affairs. Acosta was using sick time to take a leave of absence due to an illness.
Members of the SGA's ALANA Caucus allege the e-mails were "improper and possibly illegal." They are particularly upset that the e-mails left Bustamante out of the discussions, saying in a statement, "in almost all these e-mails, the President was left out of 'the loop.'"
All of the e-mails were composed between May 28 and Sept. 16. Many of the e-mails were sent from Higgins to Gargano, asking him when he would stop funding Franco's position.
One e-mail, dated June 1, sent from Higgins to Gargano reads in part: "What is your plan for Gladys Franco being the grad student in OAA? My understanding was you intended to pull funding and I am curious as to when you plan on doing that?"
Another e-mail dated July 26, 2004 from Higgins to Gargano asked a similar question: "This summer you announced to me that it was your intention to remove funding to the graduate Assistant you pay for in OAA. I am curious when you are going to pull the trigger on this move?"
"[The e-mails] are especially troubling for me," said Bustamante as he addressed the Senate body. "I saw a lot of dishonesty exposed."
The SGA has acknowledged that the university has not authenticated any of the e-mails. However, members of the Senate still felt the need to take an official stance on relations between themselves and the administration as a result of the e-mail messages.
A list of resolutions on the e-mail issue, comprised by Sen. Erin Lemkey, was tabled by the Senate until next week. After the meeting the resolutions will come to the attention of the Public Policy and Relations Committee, who will review the measure. It will then be re-presented to the SGA in a future meeting.
The list noted several facts about the incidents and made further resolutions, which concluded that the SGA would forward all recommendations to the Office of the Chancellor, not the Vice Chancellor. It also resolved that the SGA has "no confidence in Vice Chancellor Michael Gargano."
Lemkey said she would like the University to acknowledge whether or not the e-mails are authentic.
"A lot of people don't ... have complete confidence in the authenticity of the e-mails because the University hasn't acknowledged them," Lemkey said.
Another motion the SGA voted on in the meeting was one to appoint sophomore political science major Jennifer Jean-Baptiste to the Senate's judiciary committee. Her appointment was met with debate, which was sparked by Sen. Mark Morrisson.
Morrison said appointing her would be "extremely wrong" because she had not completely read the Senate's bylaws and had no prior SGA experience.
When Jean-Baptiste was asked in the meeting, prior to debate whether she had read the bylaws, she responded, "I have not read all of them."
However, after debate began, she was asked a second time if she could explain if she had read the bylaws completely.
"I have read the entire book several times, but I have not memorized all the bylaws by heart," she responded.
Several members questioned whether or not all the Coordinating Council members were present when Jean-Baptiste's motion for appointment was approved. President Bustamante explained that due to changes, the number needed for quorum was seven, but nine were in attendance. Therefore, there was a sufficient amount of members to vote on the appointment issue. In the end, her motion to appoint was approved in the Senate.
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