Associated Student Government President-elect Beau Flores plans to institute changes to how Mav Awards finalists are selected in the future.
The decision was inspired by the controversy that arose over the 2018 awards after Cultural Diversity Board Director Shelby Cerise was named as a finalist for organization leader of the year by the Fee Allocation Committee and then later removed. CDB was also named as a finalist for the organization of the year and subsequently replaced by CMU TV.
Flores plans to work with the new ASG director of external affairs to change how finalists are chosen for the awards.
“What I want is to kind of have it concrete in how to choose within the bylaws,” Flores said. “And have it in the constitution so there’s no if, ands or buts. ‘This is how we’re going to follow it, this is how we’re going to get it,’ instead of just kind of having an unorthodox way of ‘hey, this year let’s have FAC do it,’ and then they’re like ‘no I don’t like it, let’s do it this way.’ That is going to cause problems for sure.”
Flores said the Mav Awards are something students should strive for.
“I think if somebody does a good job, they should be recognized for it,” Flores said and pointed out the 2018 awards had more nominations submitted than previous years. “It just happened to fall on a process that wasn’t defined.”
Flores does not anticipate difficulty in making the changes. “It’s very simple. I don’t know why it wasn’t thought of before,” Flores said.
Changes to the Mav Awards are not without precedent. The awards themselves saw an in increase in scope from last year.
The attendance was the same with 260 guests, although that was not the original plan. According to Chrystina Meador, current director of external affairs, there were originally 304 people planned for, but two sports teams were unable to attend and GEMS club had a conference, so not all of their members could come.
“Last year, I think they invited everyone that was nominated,” Meador said. “We had too many nominations so we limited to top three to be consistent.”
In spite of the same audience size, the event was more elaborate than 2017. Additions to the awards include security guards, vase rental balloon service and appetizers. The dinner buffet increased in price from $2072.75 last year to $2,340.00. The overall price increased from $2,247.75 to $3,388.35.
The coming school year will determine if the 2019 Mav Awards will also increase in scope or if the changes Flores makes will eliminate future controversy.
