By Vince Gasparini | January 22, 2025
President Jalen Rose and Vice President Amelia Crawford plan to lead the University at Albany Student Association remotely this semester as the pair take on internships through the university’s Semester in Washington Program in Washington, D.C.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
President and Vice President are both paid positions, with the former receiving an annual stipend of $8,500, and the ladder $7,000. Both positions also receive an additional Summer stipend of $2,700. The money comes from the annual SA budget, which allocates $2.7 million of funds that are largely sourced from the semesterly $110 student activity fee.
In an interview with the ASP, the pair said they intend on holding their bylaw-required 10 office hours per week throughout the semester over the videoconferencing application Zoom, while handling the rest of their communications via email, phone call and text message.
“All of our meetings are going to be attended virtually, along with any time someone needs to get into contact with us,” Crawford said. “Which, 90 percent of our job is already done via Zoom, via email, via text message, via phone call. I would say 10 percent of our meetings we do in-person.”
The heads of SA’s executive branch communicated their plans to govern from D.C. to the rest of the organization through an email sent on Tuesday, which states that “this is not a decision we take lightly,” but that it is “the best course of action to maintain the stability of SA and the momentum of our administration.”
“We know and understand the importance of our roles and responsibilities as the President and Vice President,” the email reads. “We have full confidence that we will be in full compliance with Student Association bylaws and fulfill all our duties the same as if we were in Albany.”
The pair claim it was not “set in stone” that they were going until “around Christmas Day,” and Rose told the ASP that because SA wasn’t in session, “we have our own personal lives to worry about. SA doesn’t have Senate meetings; we don’t have to communicate with Senators. None of the work that we do right now is paid.”
“[During break], obligations as the President and Vice President of Student Association are on pause, and any work that we do is, for lack of a better term, out of the kindness of our hearts,” Rose said.
The email also states that they “completely understand that our decision might have caused some confusion or raised a few questions,” among Senators and that they plan to “make ourselves available to you, just as we always have but please give us grace as we adjust to the start of the semester.”
The move comes amid scrutiny from SA Senators for the pair’s handling of the Dippikill closure, which they are likely to face questioning over at SA’s first meeting of the semester on Wednesday, Jan. 22.
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