Ex-ASUA president still has interests at UA

He works in a small cubicle on the sixth floor of the Administration building and occasionally looks out a window at the students he used to lead.

After graduating from the UA in May with a public administration degree, Davidson took a paid internship in the office of Joel Valdez, the University of Arizona's senior vice president for business affairs and a key player in the Memorial Student Union's renovation.

Davidson's work with student-oriented projects isn't through yet, because Valdez has assigned him to work on the renovation project.

"I'm interested in getting a new community center, not just a Union," Davidson said last week. "But the Union is a small aspect of what I do here."

Valdez said yesterday that Davidson is doing much more than just working on the Student Union renovation project.

"He's doing stuff with facilities management and the planning department for a new engineering building," Valdez said. "One of the things I asked Gilbert to do is help with facilitating - getting meetings together."

But Valdez said Davidson's work with the Student Union project as ASUA president helped earn him a role in planning the renovations.

As Associated Students president, Davidson was actively involved in a referendum that would have forced students to help pay for the Student Union renovation.

Despite Davidson's claims last week that he wanted UA students to have a voice in the matter - but not an $80-per year fee - he did in fact push to charge his constituents while he was ASUA president.

"I feel a fee is best," he wrote in a Nov. 5, 1997 Arizona Daily Wildcat guest column. "A student-generated fee will allow students to control and oversee the entire project."

Davidson said last week that he made no effort to force the fee on students.

"I pushed in trying to get people to understand the project," he said. "We didn't tell people to go out there and vote yes."

But Davidson also wrote in the column that renovations would not happen without student money.

"This project cannot happen without some sort of student support, either willingly (a fee) or unwillingly (tuition)," he wrote.

Although he said last week that the referendum failed because "students were not informed," Davidson said it was his responsibility to educate the UA community about such issues.

"We (ASUA) will provide the means for students to vote and the information they need," he said in a Sept. 11, 1997 Wildcat article, before the referendum vote.

It failed, with about three-fourths of student voters against the fee.

Davidson also said Valdez and other UA officials never pressured him to support a student fee.

"No administrator ever pushed that and quite frankly, they don't have the power to," he said last week.

ASUA connections

Davidson said last week that while he is no longer a part of the Associated Students, he does stop in once in a while to consult with ASUA President Tara Taylor.

"That's a relationship that I think every former president has had with current presidents," he said.

Ryan Rosensteel, ASUA's administrative vice president, said Davidson's work with UA administrators didn't affect his job performance while president.

"He probably got some connections as student body president, but that didn't influence his decisions," Rosensteel said yesterday.

But Rosensteel did understand why some in ASUA could see a conflict of interest, especially with Student Union renovation issues.

"I could see where the sentiment would arise and where people would start questioning it because of his support of the student fee, but I don't agree with that," he said.

ASUA Adviser Jim Drnek said while Davidson was president, he dealt with many administrators, including Valdez.

But Drnek said while Davidson "was pro-Union," there was no promise of a position within the UA administration.

"He understood the importance of having to finance the product through a partnership between the students and the administration," Drnek said.

"They needed somebody who had a lot of background knowledge about the Union," he said. "I think it's the administration utilizing the most knowledgeable person possible."

And Valdez said Davidson is doing an "outstanding" job.

"He's a young boy, but he's got a bright future," Valdez said. "I see a lot of big things for this boy if he keeps his nose clean."

David J. Cieslak can be reached via e-mail David.J.Cieslak@wildcat.arizona.edu.