Spring Break
A.S. board rejects 2 appointees
Rima Shah, Daily Staff Writer
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Erika Jackson and Mehrshad Mansouri were nominated by A.S. President Maribel Martinez to be appointed as the Director of Communications and the Director of Faculty Affairs respectfully.
Erika Jackson also won the 2002 A.S. elections for director of communications.
Ryan Grotz, the director of programming affairs, brought up the issue of conflict of interest between the A.S. and the Student Union, where Jackson is currently a member.
"I feel it is a major issue where we at right now and I feel that the end of the semester would possibly be the best time for her," Grotz said.
"It is sad that I wasn't able to get voted in," Jackson said. "I am on the Student Union Board of Directors for two years and I will be on the Student Union board of directors next year. I am not the only person who sat on the Student Union board of directors. So many other people in this room have sat in the Student Union board of directors while they were also serving on the A.S."
After the board rejected Jackson's appointment, Brian Tison, the director of business affairs, brought up a nomination for the appointment of MaryJane Csermely for the same position.
"I am graduating in May and I haven't been too much into A.S. since I left the board and I feel that before I do that I would leave the university after 5 years knowing that I have helped the A.S. in any way I can," said Csermely, who was the board of director of extra-curricular affairs in 2000-2001.
Julie Perreira-Rieken, the A.S. controller, said although she recognizes Csermely's experience and sentiment, appointing her would not be the best thing.
"Since she has been graduating in two weeks, it makes no sense to appoint someone who does not know what's going on in the board, hasn't been there," Perreira-Rieken said. "Erika (Jackson) is the next person who is going to be the next director of communications. She is going to be on the Student Union. She'll be here next year. She has been to every meeting and is up to date to what is going on. She should be trained for the position now, makes more sense."
Martinez said it was interesting that the board decided in the last meeting to ease the transition between the newly elected board members into their position, but the appointment of Jackson to the director of communications to which she was elected was rejected.
Martinez also said Csermely's application had not gone through the proper procedure in which the president is required to meet and interview the candidates and check their GPA.
Grotz also objected to the appointment of Mansouri as the director of faculty affairs, citing conflict of interest with the Student Union board of directors and the A.S.
After Mansouri's appointment as director of faculty affairs was rejected, Chris Shaheen nominated Marcus Williams for the director of faculty affairs.
However, Grotz did not protest to Mansouri's appointment to the finance committee and the board voted him unanimously as a member of the finance committee.
Monica Rascoe, the vice-president of student affairs, said A.S. requires board members to serve on the Student Union board of directors and should not block what could be a very healthy communication devise between what is happening on the other boards.
The board also disagreed on the issue of the 2002-2003 A.S. budget with Tison and Grotz making new amendments to the budget, which Perreira-Rieken and Martinez had laid out.
Perreira-Rieken said she had been working on the budget months earlier and had even presented it to the board for their review but nobody had even looked at it.
"Did he come to the controller? Did he point out some changes?" Perreira-Rieken said. "He sat and did it on Monday when he had two months to work and then he threw it together and showed it to the board. There has to be a proper procedure where he has to attach an agenda. You can't just vote on something. They're trying to pass something without the people trying to know about it."
Tison said Martinez's budget was cutting a lot funding from the services that were essential to organizations.
"A lot of these areas generate revenue for the A.S.," Tison said. "Therefore A.S.'s well-being runs on these organizations. Actually, about 35 percent is from generated revenue and 45 percent is from student fees and we were to cut from generated revenue our budget would be to $2 (million) to $3 million short."
Tison said taking the budget to the finance committee again for reviewing the budget he proposed would be a long process and the budget has to be in the table of San Jose State University President Robert Caret by May 2, and he believes that it would be more efficient if it went through a special board meeting instead of a finance committee meeting.
Perriera-Rieken said the budget was delayed because the board members hadn't taken the time to read the budget.
