Stephen DeSalvo enjoys politics. The Student Association comptroller candidate spends a great deal of time watching CNN and always has news websites open on his laptop.

But what DeSalvo enjoys most about being politically active is the ability to give students a voice.

‘Any time I join something or any time I take an action, it’s always with other people in mind,’ said DeSalvo, a sophomore chemical engineering and math major. ‘And as comptroller that wouldn’t change. I’m not doing this for me. It’s more to help fill a void on campus by taking on a position — which is quite tough and quite time-consuming — to help students receive what they need to receive.’

DeSalvo said it was this mentality that led him to join SA and later join the Finance Board, as well as run for comptroller. DeSalvo is the only declared comptroller candidate. He was also a part of multiple student government activities in high school at the local, state and national levels.

Brad Monroe, DeSalvo’s campaign manager, sees the comptroller candidate’s passion. Monroe said that DeSalvo’s intellect and competence are obvious by his ability to juggle school, SA and his own company, DeSalvo Web Sites, a web design business started in 2005.

‘He’s the most mature kid I know,’ said Monroe, a sophomore finance major. ‘Pretty much anything he puts his mind to he handles extremely well.’

DeSalvo said his priority is to bring greater transparency and equality to the student fee. He has already begun working on this goal by adding information from last budget season to SA’s Your Student Fee website, a site that allows students to see where money is allocated.

By expanding the site and creating more communication between the Finance Board and organizations, DeSalvo said he hopes to make financial information more accessible.

The site shows groups that receive funding, but DeSalvo said he would like to add details showing what each individual organization received in terms of what budgets they submitted and requested. DeSalvo said he plans to look into putting information on the Your Student Fee website about the reasons behind the Finance Board’s recommendations.

That information is already public, but students must go to the SA office and request the minutes and hope that someone can find them, he said.

‘To me, that’s not considered public. Public is something that can be duly accessed,’ DeSalvo said, adding that the concern is whether the organizations in question will want the information online.

SA Comptroller Jeff Rickert said he is happy with the changes made to the website and with DeSalvo’s decision to run for office.

‘He doesn’t think of what’s in the best interest of himself. He thinks of what’s in the best interest of the student body and the student activity fee as a whole,’ Rickert said.

Another goal is to continue to improve SA’s roll-over policy and to strengthen the Finance Board. By changing the policy so that funds roll over from the spring semester to fall semester, the organizations could put their money to better use, and it would decrease the number of funding requests, DeSalvo said.

DeSalvo is striving to fill all 10 seats on the Finance Board and the assistant comptroller position. Filling the seats will allow more people to get involved and help student organizations requests get met faster, DeSalvo said.

DeSalvo said he would like to mandate that all SA members undergo a form of fiscal training.

Students come into the SA office looking for information on special programming, budgets and contingency requests, but the comptroller or other Finance Board members are not always around to answer questions. Assembly members would be better equipped to meet the needs of the most students possible, he said.

‘I think it’s important to have all the assembly members — who are required to do office hours anyway — know briefly the basics about all these things so that when someone comes in and asks for a contingency request form, they can point them in the right direction,’ DeSalvo said.

Rickert, who DeSalvo has been shadowing all semester, said he regrets not implementing a similar mandate. Rickert said he took the time to show DeSalvo the day-to-day activities of the comptroller because Rickert wasn’t entirely sure what he was expected to do when he was elected.

Despite DeSalvo’s sophomore standing, Rickert said DeSalvo is the best for the job.

‘There are a lot of juniors who don’t even know how to do this stuff,’ DeSalvo said. ‘So in this position, I don’t think age plays much of a role. Having someone who’s competent and who knows what they’re doing is really what’s necessary.’

egsawyer@syr.edu 

Published on November 7, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Liz: egsawyer@syr.edu | @3sawyer