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No one ever said it was going to be easy, and it certainly wasn't. Greg Payne's bumpy year as student body president began with assault charges filed against him. The case cast a shadow over student govern­ ment for most of the year, he said. "I really felt the pressure because of the attention. It made dealing with the administration next to impossible. It was effectively political cas­ tration," Payne said. The assault charges were only the tip of the iceberg. Payne and Vice President Shirley Smits had trouble dealing with PSU's administration all year long. In early October, Smits requested the removal of Ken­ neth H. Fox as the administrative li­ aison to ASPSU. Sharon Brabenac, advisor to Student Development at the time, took his place. Later that month, students Matthew A. Tracy and Chris Corneil began a recall effort to oust Payne, Smits, IFC member Sacha Gilbert and IFC Chair Jennie L. Clark. "Personal attacks, malicious be­ havior and power playing between the four are unprofessional, undigni­ fied and simply not indicative of good student leadership," the letter submitted to the ASPSU office said. The recall effort was later amend­ ed to exclude Clark, but the effort still failed. Another dispute arose between ASPSU and the Office of Student Af­ fairs over the Student Development Computer Lab. ASPSU retained con­ trol of managing it, despite a draft proposed by the computer lab committee that would have allowed the administration to veto student council decisions on the matter. "The computer lab was a real thorn in our side ... It was a fight be­ tween Fox and Payne basically," said Nicole Webb, elections committee chair. In one of the few bright spots of his term, Payne lobbied the adminis­ tration and the Branford Price Millar Library to increase library hours dur­ ing finals week fall term. Perhaps the highest point of the year for ASPSU was Earth Week, April 20-25. Student Council Activities Chair Lori Reslock did most of the orga­ nizing of the successful event, which took place in the Park Blocks. "The ASPSU put on the largest event on campus this year. This is an Dan Martin example of what we could do. Lori deserves a lot of credit. If things had gone a little differently this year, we would have seen more of this kind of success," Payne said. "If Greg didn't have to come in proving himself, then it would have been a smooth ride for everyone. He didn't trust anyone because a lot of people didn't trust him. That's unfortunate," Webb said, "However, we did involve the student council more than in past years in the decision making process, which helped us get things accomplished better." "I feel we could have done more. But we've learned from that and passed that on to the new administration. If you're in politics for the right reasons, you're not in it for yourself. You need to be unbiased," Payne said. Dan Martin Top: Greg with Austen Ruzicka, who is probably thinking, "What am I, just a photo opportunity for a politician?" Above: Greg makes an emphatic point to his V.P. Shirley Smits. 89