PJ Alampi sat in disbelief behind the Flint Hall main desk nearly two weeks ago. Once an ideal selection for chief of staff, Alampi was now under investigation by the Student Association.

Just several days prior, the news had broke detailing his involvement with SA’s mishandlings concerning the concealment of now ex-Director of Public Relations Colin Crowley’s non-matriculated status.

This was the tipping point for Alampi, as he sat thinking back on a semester in which he watched the organization he cared so deeply for unravel in front of him.

It was then that Alampi began to draft the first line of his letter of resignation. A letter this now ex-chief of staff never predicted he would come to write.

Despite Alampi being partially at fault for the way Crowley’s status was concealed, he has provided years of dedicated service and commitment to SA.

But after several weeks of dishonesty and an extreme lack of transparency by SA members, it is clear Alampi made the right choice to leave the organization.

SA’s focus this semester has concentrated on internal relationships, as proven by the recent string of events. This is no longer a place for the best student leaders of Syracuse University to exercise their strengths and put forth their efforts to serve the student body, though it should be.

“It has become an organization that is about being an organization, and not about being the defenders of the students and being a resource on this campus,” Alampi correctly explained.

Alampi rightfully takes the blame for his part in the recent scandal and admits it was a factor in his resignation decision, but he said this was not the only reason.

For almost the entirety of the semester, Alampi said he was not being utilized by President Allie Curtis to help execute initiatives. Alampi said he attempted to coordinate weekly meetings with Curtis, but she stopped attending after the first several weeks of the semester. He also asked Curtis to bring him three large initiative goals beyond internship credits, one of Curtis’ campaign points. These goals were never delivered.

It made Alampi question his role in the organization — a remarkable echo to the complaint driving Taylor Carr from the same position in SA last year during Dylan Lustig’s administration.

Alampi will rightfully continue to serve the SU community as a student representative on the university’s chancellor search committee and as a Syracuse University Alumni Board representative for the class of 2014.

This past February, I felt sure Alampi would not mirror the actions taken by Carr almost exactly a year ago. But I also had confidence in members of my student government to take their jobs seriously.

Alampi and Carr are similar student-leader hybrids at their cores. Both wanted to lead the organization, but after the votes failed to fall in their favor, they continued to serve the student body in an appointed capacity, which came to be unproductive.

They experienced their organization disappoint them, realized their goals and concepts would never be put into motion and felt falling to the wayside was more admirable than representing an organization they no longer believed in.

This will become a frequently reoccurring situation if the association does not drastically change course and begin utilizing and harnessing the talents and skills of its members.

A trend of responsibility must follow the descending nature of the organization, not only concerning the Crowley situation, but the inefficiency of the assembly as a whole. Though SA members are students first, this is not an excuse for the dwindling sense of accountability concerning their roles outside the classroom.

The sooner this logic is understood, the better.

Rachael Barillari is the editorial editor and a junior political science and Middle Eastern studies major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @R_Barillari.

 

Published on April 8, 2013 at 1:08 am