FUSA’s highest ranking unelected official resigned this week, citing increased time commitments due to his job as a resident assistant and his new internship as a student teacher.
Kenneth R. Dunaj, ’02, formerly the Internal Executive Assistant in the Joeseph Piagentini administration, had been involved with FUSA since his sophomore year. He was elected to the senate as a junior, and in that position co-wrote FUSA’s new constitution and served as an election commissioner before helping to manage the campaign of current president Joe Piagentini.
“I realized that being a student teacher and an RA takes up a lot of my time. I don’t think I could serve the university community by overextending myself,” Dunaj said.
“I think that Ken made a wise decision,” Piagentini said, “because he’s going to be very busy with his new job. We’ll miss him greatly, because he worked hard and was very dedicated.”
Overall, Dunaj said that it has been a “very quiet year” at FUSA, but also voiced concerns over the future of the organization.
“Government could always be doing a better job, it’s whether you have the qualified people there to do it,” he said. “Some people feel that they can get elected and then not do anything.”
“There were a lot of people elected when I was a senator who didn’t represent the student body well,” he added. “Does FUSA properly represent the students? Yes, but not to the extent that it should. We don’t have the pull and political clout that we should. At times, I feel like FUSA is not taken seriously by the administration. FUSA needs leadership in the future that will stand up to the administration.”
Piagentini said that even FUSA must deal with its limitations. “FUSA does represent the student body,” he said. “We’re elected by the students and we work hard as a team to get things done for the students, but there are just some things that we can’t do.”
Dunaj commented that his personal style has prevented him from seeking higher office in FUSA. “I believe I was qualified to run for FUSA president or senate vice president. The reality of it is that I speak my mind, I always have, and people don’t like that, apparently.”
Dunaj also commented on the constitutional crisis that surrounded the FUSA Programming Board’s activities in organizing the 112 concert.
“Yes, there were violations of the Constitution,” he said, “but it’s important to remember that there was a lot of confusion at the beginning of the year because of the new constitution. I think that the programming board was just trying to do their job, because the university requires programming on the weekends. It wasn’t constitutional, but by university standards they had to do what they did. Essentially, it was a Catch-22.”
Piagentini also suggested that the days might be numbered for the position of Internal Executive Assistant in FUSA.
“I haven’t decided what to do yet,” Piagentini said. “People are showing a lot of interest, and I’ll make a decision soon on whether to fill the position or let it go.”
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