The Student Association’s vice president for multicultural affairs, Ju-Sun Lee, announced his resignation Monday night. It probably wasn’t the best idea taking on a position in student government with prospects like his, but now he’s got a well-paying Web design job, and all we can say is good for him: we know we wouldn’t stick around to make this rag if we had a lifetime source of income waiting in the wings.

On his way out, Lee called the job he held “vague.” What exactly was he supposed to have been doing? According to the S.A. constitution, the vice president for multicultural affairs:

“i. Shall work to, where possible, coordinate the events, program, and activities of all culturally-oriented chartered organizations.

ii. Shall ensure that the Student Association follows all pertinent affirmative action guidelines.

iii. Shall nominate a candidate for the position of chair of the [Intercultural Awareness Committee].”

Let’s imagine for a moment an equivalent (obviously fictitious) S.A. vice president, but this one would be in charge of all groups that have to do with fantasy and role playing. Included in this umbrella would be the Magic: The Gathering club, Live Action Role Players and any club involving anime, for starters.

This “vice president for role-playing administration” would get a $2,500 stipend, an office and a staff with a $1,400 budget. The veep’s responsibilities: publicize group events, present a weekly report to the S.A. on the state of fantasy relations and handpick someone to lead the committee of fantastical awareness.

This isn’t work befitting an executive position, whether it’s one in fantasy administration or multicultural affairs. It’s plain to see that the VPMA job is all about showing off the S.A.’s “cultural awareness.” As things now stand, the VPMA is a glorified affirmative action compliance officer. The projects the office works on could be accomplished more efficiently without it, and Binghamton, one of the most ethnically diverse campuses in the SUNY system, deserves as much efficiency as possible.

Cultural groups already have an entire separate body to report to and represent them, the Intercultural Awareness Committee. The culture group representatives to the ICA are far more powerful than Assembly representatives: their constituents are generally more tight-knit and likely already agree on an agenda. The ICA itself makes the VPMA more than a little bit redundant.

And why should the Intercultural Awareness Committee’s chairman be an appointed position? The ICA, a body to represent cultural groups on campus, should be electing its own chair. Yes, the Assembly currently has to approve the VPMA’s choice. But even so, the ICA chair shouldn’t have the potential to become some “victor gets the spoils” patronage job.

And the ICA chair should itself be a more prominent position: the person elected to represent BU’s cultural organization shouldn’t be just one cog in the wheel, but a powerful voice on the S.A. president’s cabinet.

Take the point to its logical conclusion, and it becomes clear that the ICA chair should replace the vice president for multicultural affairs entirely.

Even within the Assembly, culture groups are already a force to be reckoned with. Whenever an issue of significance comes to the table — say, a culture group’s budget hearing — volunteers always spring up, ready to speak on behalf of their group.

But rather than simple issue-oriented advocacy, a stronger way to ensure the S.A. pursues a multicultural agenda is for culture groups to send members to sit on the Assembly. There are always big vacancies in the S.A.’s Off Campus College representation. Culture groups, like any groups with an agenda, should be trying to accomplish their goals through representation in the Assembly.

These reps shouldn’t be fly-by-night, either. Their job is to advocate not only for their constituencies but to better campus as a whole, and that isn’t furthered when reps show up to meetings only to vote on issues that concern them. Productive Assembly representatives of diverse heritages can ensure that people of all cultures have a real, equal say in the student government process.

And none of this involves a vice president for multicultural affairs.

If the position can be expanded to be more than a glorified facilitator, then by all means it should. Otherwise, we should think about scrapping it in favor of a multicultural liaison on the president’s cabinet. Keeping on a paid figurehead in the name of cultural diversity is a disservice to the groups the post is supposed to help, and a slap in the face to real multicultural advancement at Binghamton.