Two months into the semester, it’s already been a very hectic year for Binghamton University’s Student Association President Michael Schiffman. The senior finance major has been kept plenty busy with the responsibilities of his office.

“On the one hand, we deal with the administration and problems that students, student groups or the executive board comes to me with,” Schiffman said. “Over the years the job has evolved a little bit, and in addition to just dealing with the problems that come up we also try to better life for the students here.”

Dissatisfied with the way the office has run previously, he believes this year will be different.

“Last year, Mike Smyth started a lot of projects — and while he finished a lot of them, many remained open-ended,” he said.

One such project is the initiative to move BUC$ (BU’s debit card system) off-campus, which Schiffman says he is “actively working on.”

In addition to wrapping up already started projects, many new issues have been brought to his attention these past two months. He’s been making efforts to tackle problems such as student dissatisfaction with the quantity and placement of ATMs on campus, safer and more reliable transportation Downtown and renovation of older housing communities and the East Gym.

Most recently, with the SUNY chancellor’s statements calling for an end to Bar Crawl, Schiffman is facing a quite a daunting battle.

“Seeing that Senior Class Counsel operates out of my office, this hits nice and close to home,” he said. “Obviously this is a huge deal that we are going to have to fight.”

In addition to dealing with the ins and outs of campus life, he has been trying to revamp the student image of the SA.

“In general, I’ve been trying to make the SA more accessible to the students,” Schiffman said. “We want people to understand we’re not a bunch of politicians sitting in our little offices trying to make our lives better. We’re trying to make everyone’s lives here better.”

He also hopes to repair the rift that exists between the association and the administration.

“I’m trying to improve the relationship between the administration and the student body,” he said.

Schiffman feels that his efforts, and those of the entire executive board, have proved to be wildly successful this year, particularly when it comes to the much discussed issue of student apathy.

“Campus Wars is an indication of the success we’ve been having this year,” he said. “At the casino night we had 400 people come out on a Friday — and you know where most of the campus goes on a Friday.”

Schiffman hopes this trend of student involvement in campus issues continues. He encourages everyone to come out to this year’s Town Hall Meeting between students and the administration, which he expects to take place in November.

“If people have problems, I want them to come to us and talk to us,” he said, urging students to take advantage of the SA’s position on campus. “We do have influence here, and we can change things.”