For the first time since 2007, one party swept the SGA executive board in elections — which puts incumbent and president-elect Steve Glickman in a potentially more powerful position than he was this year.
Although two out of Glickman’s three vice presidents in his first term came from his party ticket, Vice President of Finance Andrew Steinberg won the seat by just 21 votes. Throughout the year, Steinberg and Glickman maintained a tense relationship. During the campaign, which ended last week, issues between the two came to a head when they were pitted against each other as presidential candidates.
“I think the communication next year is going to be a lot better — last year a lot of things happened in terms of finance and we didn’t know about them,” Glickman said. “Having Rob [Mutschler, the incoming vice president of finance] next year will help the executive board to understand what the financial issues are.”
Glickman said when he was elected SGA president last spring, one of his goals was to transform the secondary allocation of funds to student groups — a second go-round to apply for money in the fall after initial spring allocations — into a rolling process. Rather than have groups apply all at once, Glickman said applying on an as-needed basis would grant more leeway and time to newly formed groups who are still figuring out what they need.
Although Glickman said Steinberg didn’t outright disapprove, he noted even proposing the idea proved challenging.
“The process to propose it came with a few more difficulties than if I had somebody that ran with me,” he said.
Former SGA President Jonathan Sachs, who was involved in Steinberg’s campaign this year, said having a mixed executive board wasn’t easy: When Sachs won the presidency in 2008, it was with an opposing party member — now SGA’s Director of Environmental Affairs Joanna Calabrese — as his senior vice president.
“After a hotly contested election, there are natural feelings of animosity,” Sachs said.
But Sachs said he ultimately saw Calabrese as a beloved presence in the SGA leadership.
“I think that I definitely grew as a leader over the course of the year because Joanna was in the room,” he said. “I think it’s a healthy thing to have an executive board with some difference of opinion.”
Lisa Crisalli, the incoming vice president of academic affairs, said she doesn’t think there will be too much of a difference next year.
“No matter what, the people who are involved are interested, and they’re going to be able to work together,” she said.
But, she added, there is a distinct advantage to an executive board that’s already spent long hours campaigning together.
“We definitely have great working relationships already established, which, as everyone knows, has been a problem in the past,” she said. “I think we all came together because we share a lot of the same interests and a lot of the same philosophies, and I really think that’s going to facilitate a lot of work being done next year.”
Glickman agreed.
“I think there’s already an established sense of cooperation because we’ve all campaigned together,” he said. “We already understand each other and the way we operate — kind of our work ethic as a group. I think that helps to start us off on a stronger leg than last year.”
And while Glickman declined to enumerate specific plans, he said he expects quicker turnaround for next year’s operations — a sentiment Mutschler echoed.
“I think that the process is going to start a lot faster,” he said. “I think we’ll be able to get a faster start on a lot of the initiatives from last year.”
aisaacs@umdbk.com
