SGA President Steve Glickman is running for a second year as head of the organization and said he wants to finish what he started this year.
Three hundred and forty-five days after his inauguration, SGA President Steve Glickman still has some unfinished business.
As the first incumbent Student Government Association president to run for re-election in more than a decade, Glickman is volunteering for a second go-round at a job that can wear down the most determined student. Past SGA leaders have seemed relieved to pass the torch, but Glickman insists he isn’t ready to call it quits.
“Throughout this year, I have thoroughly enjoyed the pleasure of having the privilege to be president of the student body, and I believe that a lot of my initiatives that I put forth last year are towards the long-term end of initiatives that have ever been pushed forward by student body presidents,” he said.
Despite setbacks, Glickman maintains a kind of clear-eyed optimism about a job that can leave a full-time student time-strapped and exhausted — and that’s not mentioning the constant criticism and scrutiny, which he doesn’t seem to notice.
“I feel it’s in my nature to give back to the students. That’s what I want to do,” he said.
“The people who have interacted with me and the people that I’ve helped know the real drive, determination and passion that I have for this position.”
As for the naysayers, it’s nothing personal.
“I feel like the critics don’t know me that well,” he said.
Incumbency has its obvious advantages: Glickman, a junior government and politics major, has both name recognition and his accomplishments to point to this week. Not even two days into campaigning, his “Your Party” Facebook group has more than twice as many fans as either STARE or the SKYY Party. But with a year as president under his belt, Glickman also has a track record to account for.
Although he managed to push through some of his smaller-scale campaign promises from last spring — like creating a communal resource room for all student groups, holding an off-campus safety walk to pinpoint dangerous areas and hosting a multicultural expo to showcase the diversity of student organizations — many of his bigger aspirations have either stalled or been pushed aside.
Glickman has given critics ammunition. His biggest campaign goal — to make student IDs double as Metro SmarTrip cards — slowed to a halt back in February. Though he said then the program should begin this fall regardless of delays, he admitted yesterday there is no confirmation from Metro on when it will be feasible.
Meanwhile, establishing a campuswide neighborhood watch program is still pending approval from the Office of Legal Aid and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, and eliminating Saturday final exams depends on scheduling simulations that have not yet been completed by the Office of the Registrar.
And though Glickman said he has both lobbied and testified in Annapolis or with state representatives 40 to 50 times on issues like allowing for registration on election days and protecting this university’s budget, he has not lobbied at the federal level — something he promised to do during last year’s campaign.
SGA spokesman Joel Cohen said many of these holdups are largely procedural.
“When it comes down to implementing [these initiatives], there are things that arise that you really can’t foresee — funding issues, bureau issues,” he said.
SGA City Council Liaison Jonathan Sachs, who was Glickman’s predecessor and has emerged as one of his biggest critics, said calling the unfinished projects long-term is just an excuse.
“He has a lot of chutzpah making that argument,” said Sachs, who is supporting the SKYY Party. “It’s pushing an idea that just isn’t true … the SGA president can get a lot done in one year and can create a lot of systemic and ongoing sustainable change, and it just has not happened.”
But Cohen said it will take the knowledge Glickman gleaned during his term of how to work with administrators and outside bureaucracies in order to not only finish the work he started but also be ready to handle a new university president. Glickman agreed.
“It takes almost a whole semester to learn the ins and outs and where to go,” he said. “I believe that the student body needs to maintain stable student leadership in a changing campus that will be coming next year.”
Sachs, however, said Glickman’s record simply shows he is unworthy of a second chance.
“I think it’s obvious that … this year people are starting to question the effectiveness of the SGA because of how little it’s accomplished,” he said. “We were able to do all these things in less than a year, and Steve can’t point to one credible accomplishment that he’s really gotten done in one year, so why should he earn another?”
But Cohen insists that despite what could be perceived as shortcomings, Glickman does his job well.
“I think that people don’t realize the amount of work that any SGA president puts in. Don’t underestimate what Steve has done, what he can do and he will do.”
aisaacs@umdbk.com
