The last moments preceding the verdict of Student Association’s presidential race proved to be nerve-racking and stressful for Dylan Lustig. Although Lustig won 2,167 to 972, he said he felt the race was evenly matched with Taylor Carr.

The president-elect emailed every assembly representative who was re-elected to SA to congratulate them during Fall Break.

In the final weeks of President Neal Casey’s term, Lustig said he will be working with Casey to grasp the daily tasks the role of the presidency entails.

Casey said he did not receive a lot of training when he took over the presidency, but he will make sure he introduces Lustig to important contacts and leaves the future president in a good position.

One of Lustig’s first goals is to reform the constitution in terms of defining the role of the presidency, he said. Lustig said the constitution’s oath of office is the main outline for the responsibilities concerning the presidency, and he would like to enact additional descriptions of the position.

One change would be to limit the president’s authority by restricting the power to appoint committee chairs.

‘It is important to be the leader of this organization, not the dictator,’ Lustig said.

Although Casey admires Lustig’s passion, Casey said he believes there are bigger issues facing the student body than redefining the role of the presidency. He said these changes could not be made until November 2012 because they would need to be enacted by a referendum.

One of Lustig’s first responsibilities will be to fill the roles of the vice president and chief of staff. He said he is in a difficult position because many individuals have proven valuable to him, especially during his campaign.

‘Although the decisions will be hard, they will not be the hardest decisions I will have to make as president,’ Lustig said.

As current chief of staff, Amy Snider said she makes a large effort to be at every committee meeting and hopes the next chief does, too. After Casey appointed Snider, the two worked together to further define the role, an initiative that should be continued, Snider said.

One change Snider said she would like to see is a closer relationship between Lustig and the chief of staff. Though Snider said she and Casey collaborated frequently, further communication will benefit Lustig.

Financial improvements are another aspect Lustig said he hopes to bring by working with elected comptroller Stephen DeSalvo.

‘We are excited about the same things, like making SA more transparent and working with student groups to reform the financial vision,’ Lustig said.

DeSalvo said his main focus will be on the Your Student Fee website (yourstudentfee.syr.edu) and making documents accessible. DeSalvo said he has no problem with Lustig’s idea of using student opinion to reform the financial vision, but this concept must be taken lightly, as he and Lustig must work toward a plan that best serves the student body.

Jeff Rickert, SA’s current comptroller, said the ideas of more transparency and gathering opinions are stale concepts that never actually take shape because the student body does not care. Rickert said he received minimal responses from organizations when he asked for opinions.

‘It is frustrating and I don’t see this changing in the future,’ Rickert said. ‘SA can only do so much.’

Lustig is planning initial projects, such as working to have several floors of E.S. Bird Library open later and tying up forgotten initiatives, especially medical amnesty.

Although Lustig has many goals to build a more cohesive SA, he said he made sure they were all realistic before beginning his campaign.

rebarill@syr.edu 

Published on November 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm