After recently finding out that the Vice President of Student Affairs, Dr. Rosa Jones, had overturned the Student Government Association’s Supreme Court latest decision in regards to voter’s fraud, I cannot, in good conscious, end my term as the Director of Student Success in SGA without expressing my deep disagreement with such decision.
Three years ago when I came into Student Government as an intern, the rumor around campus was that SGA was “a puppet that the University’s Administration controlled”; however, hearing students say such things inspired me to prove them wrong. By working diligently every day to improve the University and serve my fellow students, over the past two years, I have helped the Ramirez and O’Keefe administration change that wrongful view of what SGA truly stands for. Over the past two years, we have increased the transparency of SGA, we have created innovative new projects, and we have served the greater FIU student body like never before.
After this week’s events, I feel like all the hard work that has been put into improving SGA’s legitimacy has vanished. The precedence that we are setting by having the University’s Administration overrule the SGA’s Supreme Court decisions can have long term effects that won’t be easily reversed. By having the University’s Administration intervene with SGA’s Supreme Court decisions, we are letting the Supreme Court know that their work is meaningless as any decisions they make, the University’s Administration can ultimately overrule them.
More importantly however, I feel that once again we are letting students think that SGA is truly a “puppet that the University’s Administration controls,” and in my personal opinion, this shouldn’t be the case.
My concern has nothing to do with the elections results, but rather with the fact that students’ right to have a fully student-run Student Government Association have been seized.
I hope that with this email the wrongfully done decision to overturn the SGA’s Supreme Court decision is reviewed, and that appropriate actions are taken as necessary.
Warm Regards,
Luis Masieri
Director of Student Success
Student Government Association
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