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Digging for gold is a dirty deed, yet catharsis can always be uncovered in the moments when filth finally yields to something precious.
It would seem, with all the confounding digging surrounding the University of Maine’s Student Government website controversy, there would be some kind of sheen for student political transparency by now.
What remains is nothing more than a colossal mess across the board. Students, developers, senators, and executives have been sullied in different ways throughout the mess.
It’s a notorious ordeal that spurred copious amounts of mudslinging, splattering some reputations more than others — a website lacking content, content lacking a website.
From any angle to which one subscribed, the GSS website that wasn’t certainly lacked. But when the organization suddenly struck gold on March 22 with an alternative, complete website constructed by Lydia Chang, it appeared fortune was finally there to stay.
Leave it to contractual scuffle to smudge that hope.
As it was, former senator Ryan Gavin was to compose a website for GSS to be launched on Feb. 22. Following another setback to March 15, which again brought no commencement of the website, and therein a whole slew of trouble regarding Student Body President Nelson Carson’s ability to communicate and follow through, a final contract was drafted, slating Gavin with a deadline between April 16-26. Gavin would receive an additional $584 to the $924 he already received for his work on the project.
With the surprising introduction of Chang’s fully functioning website, which she allegedly constructed in three days, emerges the present contract conflict, wherein Gavin insists he be compensated the remainder of what was offered even though there is now a chance his product will not be used.
Gavin insists the contract is legitimate, while UMSG, following an exploration into the potential legal fallout that could come from going live with Chang’s site, discovered that the deal was not finalized, as both Student Body President Nelson Carson and UMSG Vice President of Financial Affairs Giang Vo has yet to sign it.
When there is a donated, finished product ready to be launched, it’s disheartening that Gavin, who prides himself on honesty and devotion, is challenging the validity of a contract that has been determined by Student Legal Services attorney Corenna Howard to be nonbinding.
Furthermore, this should not be a question of paperwork and signatures on Gavin’s part — it should be one of ethic.
The website disaster has gone on long enough. Finally, there may a lustrous end in sight in the form of Chang’s generous offering.
We urge Mr. Gavin to take the high road and allow for commendation where it is truly due — to Chang. He was fairly compensated in the first two contracts, but the third is a stretch — and not even yet a finalized contract.
You get farther by buffing your character rather than your bank account, anyway.
