For most of the candidates in the Student Association elections, a victory would only mean switching offices in the SA’s basement headquarters in the Schine Student Center. For Rosslyn Ortega, it would mean establishing a foothold for change in that office.

Ortega, a sophomore marketing major, is running for the position of SA comptroller, the only contested race in this week’s election. Her goal is to change what she sees as the status quo by opening the channels of communication between student organizations and SA’s financial arm.

Ortega is no stranger to the mechanics of large-scale money management. At the Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers in Manhattan, she served as treasurer for a body of about 2,000 students, she said. She held that position through her junior and senior years of high school.

Her financial aspirations followed her to college. Ortega joined the SA finance board in the spring of her freshman year and has served as the board’s liaison with greek organizations. She said while hours of tedious budget meetings needed to divvy out the student activity fee money may not be glamorous, it’s an important job.

‘It may sound simple, but it’s a lot of hard work,’ she said.

Until recently, Ortega also served as the comptroller of the NAACP’s Syracuse University chapter, a job that got her in hot water with the SA’s Judicial Review Board. The finance board’s codes state that a board member cannot also serve as the fiscal agent for an organization that receives student activity fee money, and charges were filed with the Judicial Review Board when the overlap was discovered, said SA President Andrew Thomson.

The board will formally announce that it found Ortega in violation of the codes at tonight’s Assembly meeting. The ruling states that because Ortega has stepped down as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s comptroller, she will not be assessed the maximum penalty of removal from the board. Instead, she will be required to create a detailed outline of the finance board codes and present it to the board.

Ortega declined to comment on the charges and only said, ‘I pleaded my case.’

Before she was forced to give up her fiscal powers and elected position with NAACP, Ortega’s dedication and dependability were assets to the organization, said NAACP President Imani Booker, who has known her for nearly two years.

‘Rosslyn has always been on top of her job,’ she said.

Booker believes Ortega will bring that same dedication to the comptroller’s office if she is elected.

‘If she’s not in class, she’ll be in her office as comptroller,’ Booker said.

In order to take her shot at those long office hours, Ortega may have passed up a chance to serve as assistant comptroller. Her opponent, current assistant comptroller and sophomore marketing, finance and public relations major, Maggie Misztal, said she offered Ortega the assistant’s position and that she initially accepted.

Ultimately, Ortega decided to run. What was her reason?

‘I felt there needed to be a change,’ she said.

What change is needed? Ortega wouldn’t give any specifics about that. She will say, however, that among the challenges facing the next comptroller include setting herself apart from the present administration.

Current Comptroller Erin Maghran had to grapple with a soaring deficit that has since been paid. Ortega said one of the new comptroller’s challenges would be to keep that deficit down with the help of the finance board.

‘The responsibility is on them,’ she said.

By placing the burden of fiscal responsibility squarely on the shoulders of SA officials, Ortega doesn’t intend to deprive student organizations of a voice in financial decisions. She wants to keep the lines of communication clear.

‘These are their events,’ she said. ‘I’m here to be their voice. I want to make sure that things get done correctly and fairly.’

Published on November 2, 2003 at 12:00 pm