The Student Association made the first step toward its transition between the 48th and 49th assembly Monday night with the inauguration of Travis Mason as president and Andrew Urankar as finance board comptroller.

Outgoing SA President Andrew Lederman gave his short farewell at a ceremony held in the Schine Student Center and showed his confidence in Mason’s ability to be a successful leader of SA.

In January, Mason and Urankar will take control of an organization that has been plagued with budget problems in the final weeks of the fall semester.

In November, Jason Jackson, president of Alphi Phi Alpha and the National Pan-Hellenic Council, filed charges against current Comptroller Maggie Misztal on the grounds that she was using underhanded methods to influence votes on the finance board.

Misztal was absolved of all charges last week after a hearing with the Judicial Review Board. Because of the hearings, the JRB suspended the finance board from making any deliberations on how much money out of the student fee should be given to student organizations, delaying the approval of funding for the groups.

But even though the controversy surrounding Misztal has been cleared up, budgets have yet to be approved by the SA assembly because the finance board deliberations finished Monday night.

At the inauguration Monday night, Lederman promised the budgets would be completed in the near future.

‘We will have the budgets done by the end of this week,’ he said.

The SA assembly has until Dec. 10, the last day of classes for the semester, to pass budgets. Otherwise student organizations will have to wait until classes start again in January to find out how much money they will be allocated for the spring.

Budget problems will not be the only thing Mason and Urankar will face next semester, as this session of SA has been full of challenges.

The semester began with revisions to the budgeting process to help it run smoother. Newly elected parliamentarian Joan Gabel proposed two bills that would create a more uniform process when debating bills.

She said her recommendations came after one of her first meetings as an SA member where the assembly spent more than two hours debating two bills meant to reduce the carryover student fee funds between semesters.

‘(The bills) are designed to streamline the process of SA meetings,’ Gabel said. ‘This is going to make the student government more transparent.’

Bills were also passed this semester to prevent campaign activities that would give one candidate running for SA office advantage over another. The bills made it illegal for candidates to campaign at polling places or send mass e-mails to voters on the day of elections.

During his campaign for the SA presidency, Mason sent out a mass e-mail to several students on campus about 30 minutes before midnight, the deadline to do so. The e-mail raised concerns from Mason’s opponent in the race, Jonny Umansky, and among some SA members, including Misztal.

But according to Jessie Cordova, the Board of Elections and Membership chairwoman, Mason’s e-mail was technically legal because he sent it before the midnight deadline, regardless of the fact that some students did not open the e-mail until after that time.

Despite the controversy raised, Mason was elected SA president in a landslide victory over Umansky with 71 percent of the vote.

During SA elections, students also voted to name the student section at basketball games ‘The Juice Box.’

Steven Newler, a member of SA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Athletics spearheaded the initiative to get the student section named in time for this year’s basketball season. Newler is currently seeking corporate sponsors such as Tropicana, Minute Maid, and Simply Orange.

Mason has already publicized his plans for SA in the 49th session. He wants to hold regular meetings with representatives from student organizations to keep communication open between them and SA.

He also plans to bring a free file-sharing service to campus using the student fee.

Published on December 6, 2004 at 12:00 pm