Extended Commentary

Timothy Sheehan, JD ’84 & BA ’81

Law firm partner and trial lawyer, Westchester County

SA had just emerged from its first year under an interim student government formed by the dissolution of the old Student Senate via a student referendum. SA President Joel Mayersohn (1979–80) was charged with the task of formulating a permanent student government and a new SA constitution. This responsibility was delegated to Vice President Douglas Floccare, whom I worked with as a resident advisor in Ellicott’s Fargo Quadrangle. Doug enlisted my aid on the SA constitution committee, which met throughout the school year and designed a new student government, from top to bottom, and introduced a “dual house” legislative branch to split the monetary and advocacy functions, thus keeping a strong SA presidency as envisioned by former SA President Karl Schwartz (1978–79). We pushed the constitution through a somewhat skeptical interim senate and then (just barely) passed a student referendum to have it enacted into law.

’81 - Timothy Sheehan, JD ’84 & BA ’81 (right) - Law firm partner and trial lawyer, Westchester County

’81 - Timothy Sheehan, JD ’84 & BA ’81 (right) - Law firm partner and trial lawyer, Westchester County

Given the short life span of the average student leader’s office term—as compared with the long periods of time needed to bring about change in a large university—just changing the furniture (or the SA Constitution) often seemed like an inviting exercise for student leaders. However, although the SA constitution that I helped author and made work in my office term (1980–81) has undergone some minor modifications over the years, as far as I know it has essentially remained unchanged. Some of this has to do with the fact that it was a pretty decent constitution. More of it is due to the fact that Patricia Kujawa, who retired in 2005 as SA administrative director, personally typed the document and in the ensuing years successfully fended off most purely impulsive attempts to change it.

There were many other issues that we tackled, such as trying to gain a greater voice in Faculty Senate proceedings. SA had been essentially shut out of the Springer report process that changed the four course load system to a five course load system, although Karl Schwartz and his academic affairs coordinator Scott Jiusto had managed to convince the university to postpone enactment for a year, due to the fact that many students were enticed to come to UB because of the four course load.

Because of the lack of “ground floor” input into these academic matters that greatly affected students’ lives, all SA officers since then vowed to make sure that we were heard at a much earlier point in the decision-making process. Joel Mayersohn’s academic affairs coordinator Judiann Carmack lobbied the Faculty Senate for increased student representation on their committees. Thus, when the university’s general education program was developed and enacted in the early 1980s, SA leaders from my administration were fully involved in that process and ensured that our voices were heard.