Last year, when we selected Alvin Lomibao and Janna Gewirtz to be our Students’ Association President and Vice President, we had high hopes. We hoped for two people to carry on not only what former SA President Alexander Pearlman had done, but expand upon it. We believed we had found two people capable of doing this – tenacious advocates for the student body.
Now, going into November, we are very disappointed. The Lomibao-Gewirtz Administration has made no steps forward and, if anything, has sent us backwards.
They promised advocacy and change. The idea of a recycling center was exciting but, seven months later, there is no sign of it. And, the Collegiate Readership Program that brought us free copies of the New York Times, USA Today and the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle has not been reinstated, despite its enormous popularity. And it was in the vein of student advocacy that the town hall meetings began, but the meetings that were once brought about by Pearlman are now the realm of the departments holding them.
They promised communication, but we have heard nothing. Even if the Readership Program or recycling center are on their ways, we would have no idea – the Senate has not posted minutes online since April 23, before this semester even began. Students do not know what is happening in their student government. Whether the responsibility for this lies with the president or not, he is ultimately responsible for communicating what is going on to the student body.
What we have seen Lomibao and Gewirtz doing this year, however, is pose in the Rochester Review, sporting shirts with the new UR logo and putting in face-time at its presentation. What Lomibao and Gewirtz represent now is not so much a combined advocate for the student body that elected them, but rather poster-children for the Office of Communications.
Two months have passed in this school year, and the representation is sorely lacking – Lomibao and Gewirtz have failed to be a force for the student body and have failed to uphold campaign promises. Even botched attempts would be preferable to nothing at all.
