2008 Woodie Awards
Senate elects Feinberg COO
Justin Oswald
Issue date: 4/10/08 Section: Campus
04/10/08 - Josh Feinberg was elected as the chief operations officer of the University of Rhode Island Student Senate after a turbulent month of debate and controversial decisions.
From his presidential disqualification to a recent bill seeking to dissolve the COO position, Feinberg has been a lightning rod of ceaseless drama within the senate. But at least for now, he can breathe easy as his appointment to COO passed 21 to 10.
"I'm so happy. I can't explain to you how happy I am that this is over. I'm finally going to be able to sleep throughout the night," Feinberg said during an interview.
The value of the COO was questioned last week when a bill was introduced that would have completely scrapped the position, arguing it was ineffective and a waste of student funds.
Instead of voting on the bill to remove the COO position, the senate debated whether it wanted to push the bill to a recently created By-laws Committee. Ultimately a 17-14 vote passed the bill to the committee.
After the vote, Feinberg was asked to speak on his behalf as to why he deserved the position - just as any new appointee does.
"This is a ridiculous, ridiculous situation that's going on right now. I'm glad you passed it, because pretty much everything would have been null and void that I've done this last week," Feinberg said.
The COO receives a monthly stipend of $250, or $2,000 a year. The bill claimed that the position "drains financial and personnel resources that could be repurposed for more effective use."
Whether or not the bill's claims will be reviewed by the By-laws Committee has yet to be seen, but what is certain is that the Executive Committee acknowledged that the COO has been underutilized in the past. One of the sponsors of the bill was the last administration's COO Matt Yates.
Despite Senate President Thomas Ahrens' recognition of the ineffectiveness of past COOs, he said there is potential for the position to be used in a positive manner.
From his presidential disqualification to a recent bill seeking to dissolve the COO position, Feinberg has been a lightning rod of ceaseless drama within the senate. But at least for now, he can breathe easy as his appointment to COO passed 21 to 10.
"I'm so happy. I can't explain to you how happy I am that this is over. I'm finally going to be able to sleep throughout the night," Feinberg said during an interview.
The value of the COO was questioned last week when a bill was introduced that would have completely scrapped the position, arguing it was ineffective and a waste of student funds.
Instead of voting on the bill to remove the COO position, the senate debated whether it wanted to push the bill to a recently created By-laws Committee. Ultimately a 17-14 vote passed the bill to the committee.
After the vote, Feinberg was asked to speak on his behalf as to why he deserved the position - just as any new appointee does.
"This is a ridiculous, ridiculous situation that's going on right now. I'm glad you passed it, because pretty much everything would have been null and void that I've done this last week," Feinberg said.
The COO receives a monthly stipend of $250, or $2,000 a year. The bill claimed that the position "drains financial and personnel resources that could be repurposed for more effective use."
Whether or not the bill's claims will be reviewed by the By-laws Committee has yet to be seen, but what is certain is that the Executive Committee acknowledged that the COO has been underutilized in the past. One of the sponsors of the bill was the last administration's COO Matt Yates.
Despite Senate President Thomas Ahrens' recognition of the ineffectiveness of past COOs, he said there is potential for the position to be used in a positive manner.