Same approach, different volume in Glickman’s second term

As Steve Glickman begins his second year as SGA president — a repeat performance not seen since 1986 — he has another entire term, which will be aided by familiar faces and a comfortable knowledge of the system, to build upon the projects he started.

Glickman plans to stay the course. Many of his plans center on unfinished initiatives from his first year in the position: combining university IDs with SmarTrip cards, establishing a neighborhood watch program and eliminating Saturday final exams, to name a few.

Even as several prevailing criticisms face him in his second go-around — that he is too focused on events and shies away from long-term controversial issues — Glickman said it will be business as usual around the Student Government Association office, at least on the inside.

"I think next year is going to be very different with a lot of people changing around the SGA, not necessarily in the SGA," he said. "We have a lot of new people that we're going to be interacting with in terms of the administration."

Glickman said the primary change going into the fall will be to make sure the new university president and any other newcomers listen to the concerns and opinions of the student body.

But others question his approach and the items he has chosen to make a priority.

Many of the things Glickman has hailed as successes have been SGA-sponsored events: the zero-waste Crab Fest in October, the Multicultural Expo last month and even two meal point donation drives — one for Haiti and the other for needy students.

But others call a focus on events short-sighted and say it comes at the expense of accomplishing broader goals.

"The Multicultural Expo — that's fun," said former North Hill legislator and election opponent Natalia Cuadra-Saez. "But what about diversity on the advocacy side?"

Glickman insists his work was behind the scenes, particularly during the dismissal of Cordell Black from his post as associate provost for equity and diversity. Glickman, who many felt disappeared during the scandal, said he was having discussions with the provost rather than protesting.

"My strengths as a president aren't in the front of a rally with a megaphone but in the offices of the administrators making sure that they fully understand what students want ," he said. "I feel like we make more progress as students working in the environment that's conducive to what administrators understand."

Joanna Calabrese, former SGA director of environmental affairs, said she'd also like to see more advocacy instead of hosting events.

"Programs and events are awesome, but the main role of the SGA should be to advocate politically," she said.

And Andrew Steinberg, vice president of finance last year and Glickman's opponent in this year's election, echoed her concerns.

"A lot of the initiatives are short-term, and we need to see long-term initiatives," Steinberg said. "The SGA needs to be a governing body and not a programming body. It needs to be taking a proactive stance on behalf of the student body."

In general, many have cried foul at what they call weak stances on key issues.

"Steve's done an incredible job of listening and delegating tasks to individuals," Calabrese said. "It's crucial in the future that Steve is more proactive than reactive on behalf of student issues."

Cuadra-Saez said even when there's no practical solution at hand, the SGA needs to be confident in its position as the channel for student voices.

"I'd like to see him step up and have some opinions. ... He shouldn't be afraid to cause controversy."

Issues such as alleged police brutality during the student riots following the Duke game in March and the location of the Purple Line were publicly untouched by Glickman, even though he said he met with administrators to address them in private.

"We need to say things that might not on the surface be pragmatic," Calabrese said. "Set the bar high and you can find a compromise. Unless you demand the highest quality, you'll never have the best solution for students."

While Glickman said he stands by the efforts he quietly made with administrators, he noted his flaw lay not in the way he handled issues but rather in his failure to make his efforts known.

"It's my fault for not communicating what I was actually doing," he said. "I've been doing it for the well-being of the students, not for the publicity's sake of it."

As for what he'll change, it's all a matter of volume.

"One of the things I'd like to change next year is to be more public about what we're doing," he said, "because a lot of the stuff — police brutality, the issue with Campus Drive closing, the Hillock, the Dr. Black situation — these are all things that I was proactive about, but I wasn't publicly proactive about."

aisaacs at umdbk dot com