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Enjoy Being.out of office. Out of their offices is where Fred Odera, former Student Government President and Kamal Shannak, former Student Government Vice President are headed.
Already in Odera’s place is Brett Hall, former vice president of financial affairs for the General Student Senate. The GSS constitution states that the vice president of Student Government is to succeed the president should he or she not be able to perform his or her duties as president. If there is no vice president, the VPFA becomes president and appoints a new vice president and VPFA.
Hall plans to appoint Matthew O. Gagnon, a current senator, as vice president when Shannak steps down tomorrow. Amy Saunders, a senior journalism major and former VPFA, will be appointed VPFA. Hall is confident his appointments will not stir any opposition.
“Not a problem at all,” Hall said Friday. “Everyone I am going to appoint has been in for a few years.”
The appointments will be made at the first GSS meeting, which will be held Tuesday, Sept. 11, at 6 p.m. in 119 Barrows Hall. Gagnon and Saunders must be approved by a 2/3 vote of the senate before they can be confirmed.
Hall said he knew during the spring semester that Odera might not be returning to his post in the fall.
“I had an idea,” Hall said. “Fred always hinted he wouldn’t come back.”
Odera cites financial problems as the reason why he will not be coming back to the University of Maine this semester.
“Due to current financial constraints on my family, I will not be returning to school for the fall 2001 semester,” Odera wrote recently in a press release.
Odera said he thanks the students for giving him a chance to be their president.
“I take this opportunity to thank all of you who supported the endeavor to `Enjoy Being,’ some gratitude also goes to all those in the administration who helped a brother out, and last but not least The Maine Campus for always keeping us on our toes,” he said.
Odera said he will return to UMaine but has no intention of returning to student government.
Shannak is still on campus and is working toward graduating in May.
Saunders said Shannak’s decision to step down came as more of a surprise than Odera’s, but he told GSS members his class schedule would not allow him to put the time into student government he felt it deserved.
“My decision to resign at the expense of the trust placed upon me by the University of Maine student body is necessitated by the nature of my academic program, which in my senior year has just gotten that much more demanding,” Shannak wrote in a press release.
Saunders is optimistic about the midterm change of power. “It’s not a bad group,” she said. “Matt’s been in student government for three years. We all have a good understanding of student government and know how it’s been run.”
While the new leadership knows how GSS has been run, Hall said that does not mean there will not be any changes. One thing Hall hopes to do before the next election in early December is to redistrict GSS.
Currently GSS representation is based on where students live. If the redistricting takes place, representation will be based on the number of students in each major.
Hall also hopes to change the way student entertainment, a division of GSS, is run. “Right now there is too much power in [vice president of Student Entertainment],” Hall said. “He has too much power to make big decisions.”
The way things are now, the VPSE has the power to book all acts, large or small, that come to UMaine, Hall said. “It’s too much for a full-time student to handle,” Hall said. “They went a little bit over budget [last year]. A lot bit.”
Hall has the next two and a half months to accomplish his objectives. Students voted last December to hold GSS elections in that month, instead of in February as they had been in the past. Hall said he does not know whether he will run for re-election.
