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The presentation of University of Maine Student Government’s website in front of the General Student Senate came and went Tuesday with no content on the page, leading to criticism of Student Body President Nelson Carson on the senate floor.
The site, being developed by second-year political science student and independent contractor Ryan Gavin, who also has criticized Carson’s handling of the situation, was originally expected to go live at 12 p.m. on Feb. 22.
When a countdown mechanism on the site expired, nothing on the site changed and at around 6 p.m., it was replaced by another countdown indicating a March 15 launch date.
According to an invoice, Gavin is being paid $926 to build the website. The contract, provided to The Maine Campus by Gavin, details a series of scheduled dates for the contract depending on Student Government leadership regarding content generation, uploading and approval.
The contract’s timeline calls for the project to be completed between Jan. 31 and Feb. 28.
But Gavin, speaking shortly before Tuesday’s noon deadline, said he had not been provided the necessary content from Carson to build the website.
“I think he just fundamentally doesn’t understand what I was supposed to do and what he was supposed to do,” he said. “I literally have not done anything because he hasn’t given me anything to do.”
The contract between Gavin and Student Government calls for Gavin to design the site’s template and insert Student Government-created content — including the rosters of senators with pictures and biographies, the constitution, material for secondary pages, General Student Senate bylaws and other documents.
At Tuesday’s regularly scheduled GSS meeting, Gavin’s pre-planned presentation of the site’s progress was met with criticism from multiple senators, mostly directed toward Carson, who took accountability before senate debate.
“At what point did the light bulb go on that he needed content?” Sen. Allison Conners asked about Carson.
“It seems like basic common sense that you would need content to launch a website,” Sen. Alex Ortiz said. “Not having content on a website is like eating dinner without food.”
Carson said there was a “miscommunication” between he and Gavin over the full launch of the site and the responsibility placed on him to create content for the website.
“I should have sat down with him and said ‘Why do you need this content?’” Carson said. “I’m holding myself accountable. March 15 is the full launch.”
“This seems to be a case of absolute and total procrastination with zero discipline and zero pride. Period. End of story,” Ortiz said later. “All you’re saying is just words on a paper. It means nothing.”
After other criticisms, one from Sen. Mark Brunton and another from Ortiz, Carson offered the bringing of impeachment charges on multiple occasions as a remedy for any perceived incompetence.
He said because he has not become acclimated to the presidency yet, he did not feel comfortable mandating content from other executives.
“I was too worried about delegating jobs to my friends and doing work I didn’t mind doing myself,” Carson said. “I was worried about losing my friends by making them work.”
At the meeting, Gavin also announced that he would not be honoring the March 1 end date on his contract to finish the website.
“I know more than half of the people in this room personally,” Gavin said after questioning from a student. “I’m not running away with student money.”
In an interview with The Maine Campus Tuesday, Carson was inconsistent with his views on the launch of the site, saying he worked toward a launch before spring break, while planning for a March 15 full launch.
“A full launch going into spring break and [then] going into spring break is repetitive. It’s really convoluted and I think we’re not ready for a full launch,” he said. “I didn’t look that far into the future. Spring break is the perfect time.”
Carson compared the presentation of the website template and the actual full launch to the grand opening of a restaurant.
“They’re going to open it first and then they’re going to have the grand opening,” he said. “In my eyes, it works out perfectly. We have this full launch before spring break and we have two weeks over spring break — I can work with the senators and the executives, I can work with the powers that be to say, ‘What content do we need?’”
“All content now is behind my drive. It’s in my mind. I can’t do that,” Carson said. “It’s going to be so simple. All we need to do is what we planned on doing — we just need to add more content.”
Carson reiterated the discrepancy between his understanding of the website-construction process and Gavin’s understanding many times throughout the meeting.
“What I foresaw was — yes, I did plan on having the content in there today and launching it in a full campaign by now,” Carson said. “Time didn’t allow it. Whatever happened, the content wasn’t there.”
Carson also placed the blame for the website’s delay on himself multiple times Tuesday, emphasizing that Gavin had not been expected to create something from nothing.
“In my mind, all the content was supposed to be on there,” Carson said. “We’re paying Ryan Gavin to build the website. While he builds it, we distribute him the content and he needs to put content on. It’s not his fault.”
He gave a personal guarantee in senate that the website would be finished with content by March 15, which Gavin, on Wednesday, said would be a reasonable goal if he receives all content this week.
“Like I said, the responsibility lies with myself,” Carson said at the meeting. “Don’t put your anger towards Ryan.”
Gavin is contractually obligated to receive content directly from Carson. An e-mail from Carson to Gavin, provided to The Maine Campus late Wednesday night, said all content will be delivered to Gavin by Feb. 25.
“I am eager to work with you and look forward to a final project upon our return,” Carson wrote.
Speaking Wednesday, Student Body Vice President Anthony Ortiz said he and other executives have started to create content to submit to Carson for approval.
“The execs, we kind of decided that we’re going to generate the content that we would like to see representing our divisions,” Anthony Ortiz said.
The vice president also said from talking with Carson, it was apparent there was a patent misunderstanding of the website process.
“He didn’t understand, 100 percent, the process. I think some of the arguments people were saying were definitely justified in senate. I think they were not done appropriately,” Anthony Ortiz said. “I think the senators understood more what Ryan was trying to say and not what Nelson was understanding, so there was just a super mishap.”
Christopher Crosby contributed to this report.
