The Miami Hurricane was recently made aware of some criticisms regarding SG president Scott Sadowski. Sadowski agreed to meet last week with a Hurricane reporter to respond to some of these concerns, maintaining that he feels his term is running smoothly at this point in the semester.
“So far, I’d say [my term] has been real successful with the projects we were able to accomplish early in my term, as well as what we were able to get done this summer and secure for next spring.” Sadowski said. “Everything that’s come up this fall we’ve dealt with pretty appropriately.
“I basically look at as if I were the CEO of a company.”
Sadowski added that his relationship with the SG executive board and their role within SG mirrors that philosophy.
“We talk about what the top-level issues are and then where we want to direct those day-to-day operations,” Sadowski said.
However, Sadowski is not without his flaws.
In the Feb. 21 edition of the Hurricane Rodrigo Gasteazoro, a UM graduate student, was quoted as saying that he liked Sadowski’s ideas, but that a lot of them were already in progress.
“It’s difficult to say that I own ideas,” Sadowksi said.
Sadowski added that most students on campus have similar solutions to common problems on campus, and that overlap of ideas is inevitable.
Sadowski has also been criticized by student leaders and students for spending the majority of his summer at home in Wisconsin.
According to Mike Johnston, SG president last year, the summer is the best time to initiate administrative support and reduce inconvenience to students.
“When I was in the presidency my projects would be finished over the summer when people weren’t here and the volume was a lot lower,” Johnston said.
Sadowski, however, said that during the summer, he attended four different meetings and spent at least 10-15 hours per week on SG business and project- implementation from his home in Wisconsin.
“If you’re making a phone call, it doesn’t matter whether you’re in Miami or Wisconsin,” Sadowski said.
However, perhaps the biggest concern regarding Sadowski’s presidency is his alleged inability to follow through on projects.
Sadowski said he was made aware of this last year and now realizes the importance of carrying out a project from beginning to end.
“It’s almost like therapy when you are able to admit one of your faults,” Sadowski said. “It really brings it to light and you’re able to address it.”
“It’s great to have a lot of ideas and get these meetings set up, but if you’re not going to take the initiative – without that follow up – you’re not going to get as many things done,” Sadowski said.
He also added that some of the perceptions that people may have had of him before his presidency could have been due to misunderstandings regarding his then-authority within SG.
“As I was chief of staff [of SG] last year, I was more or less helping work on projects, never initializing and never finishing them,” Sadowski said. “I was expected to do the research and bring the information back.”
Currently, Sadowski is working on extending Ibis Ride service to include Thursday nights to the Grove.
For more information regarding SG, or to contact Sadowski, visit the SG website at www.miami.edu/sg or call the SG office at X8-3082.
Scott Wacholtz can be contacted at s.wacholtz@umiami.edu