Dave, so much of what you said was so true, until you started suggesting that Maher changed everything…lol! You know every year candidates promise to get banners on Glades road, and yes Maher is one of them…..granted hes trying, but I dare say thats just another recycled promise that never goes anywhere yet they keep on promising it (including Huffman)…..Maher did not vote against tuition increases….he may have spoken against it but he didn’t vote against the increases….the athletic fee is an example of a fee he was against….but I bet you didn’t know that in 2010 A&S fees went up, and it was followed by an across the board salary increase for student employees including SG officials. Recently a meeting was held by Student Affairs and a couple SG officials including Maher and he motioned and voted for a 5% increase in the A&S fee, even though we just increased it in 2010, and despite the fact that SG doesn’t even spend all the money it sets aside to be spent and even though we set aside reserves. The BOT ignoring his constant pushing against fee increases? He’s right now supporting an increase, while the HOUSE and SENATE passed resolutions against increases… One thing I never understand is how SG Presidents have a vote in whether tuition can go up or not, and yet get tuition reimbursement, meaning they vote on something for us that doesn’t even affect them. Each President has never tried to change that and Maher is no different. We talk to FSA in Tallahassee, but thats it, the Prez just sits in on those meetings, and its sad because since our University is spread across the state with so many campuses, we can have the ear of so many more State Legislators than other schools, but there’s been no effort to expand our lobbying pull….we just sit pat and let our President have a seat at FSA and go up to Tallahassee when the lobbying work couldve been done months before…. I’m not saying that Maher has been a bad President, nor do I doubt he has improved SG in several areas, but to act like there’s been this great amazing change in the atmosphere is laughable.

There are over twenty thousand students enrolled at Florida Atlantic University yet, 0.068% of the student body voted in the Student Government election. How does this happen? Is the turn out of the election a result of student body apathy or are the candidates doing a poor job of reaching out to the students they proclaim to be interested in representing? Isn’t it a true leaders duty to contemplate ways of appeal to their entire audience? The ratio of students enrolled to student voters is drastically disproportionate. Did the candidates only notify their friends about the election? Regarding FAU’s seemingly nonchalant student body I offer this: Student Government is handed nine million dollar of your money! Take interest in how they spend it. Hold your fellow students accountable for their frivolous spending habits. Read the annual budgets, sporadic audits, internal employee raise votes, and ask yourself if you agree or disagree with the manner in which your hard earned tuition dollars (Activity and Service fee: $11.96)are being managed. There was $200,000 allocated to homecoming and a meager $21,000 allocated for leadership development programs. I beg my fellow students to pay attention.