SGA president Vincent Cavataio to be paid minimum wage during PR internship
More details have emerged about Student Government Association President Vincent Cavataio's public relations internship with Central Michigan University's facilities management office.
Cavataio, a Shelby Township senior, will be paid $7.40 an hour for 20 hours of work per week. The job was not posted on the journalism majors and minors or IPR LISTSERV, and Cavataio found it on his own.
Associate professor of journalism Jim Wojcik said roughly half of the students who find public relations internships discover the opportunities on their own. Wojcik approved Cavataio for the internship after he said he met the criteria for the job responsibilities.
"Maybe 50 percent of the internships that students get in IPR, they find on their own," Wojcik said. "He found his own internship just like a lot of other students."
Associate Vice President of Facilities Management Stephen Lawrence worked with other professors to hire Cavataio for the internship. Lawrence and Cavataio have served on Central Michigan University's Strategic Planning Team together since Cavataio received his position on SGA last April.
"I worked with Professor Krider and Professor Wojcik on the Integrated Public Relations Student Internship in Facilities Management," Lawrence said in an email. "I inadvertently learned that Vince is an Integrated Public Relations major and that he was looking for an internship."
Lawrence said job responsibilities of the internship include public relations work, promoting campus sustainability, CMU's green-cleaning program, recycling, energy and utilities operations and CMU's carbon footprint.
"He is assisting FM in completing various award applications, preparing information packages and presentations that explain the university’s sustainability efforts that are carried out by FM," Lawrence said.
Cavataio has said he does not see the internship affecting his position as SGA president, pointing out the internship is only part-time, and he is only taking a seminar to round out his class schedule for the semester.
"Normally I’d have five or six classes, so (this) is about the same time commitment,” Cavataio said on Jan. 3. “Maybe even less, considering the studying and other time classes take up."
Tony Voisin, named interim Dean of Students in August, said he has "full confidence" in Cavataio's ability to juggle both jobs and denied any idea of a conflict of interest.
"We’ve had SGA presidents who have been RAs before,” Voisin said. “I would just advise a president make sure he or she can handle everything. He knows what’s expected of him, and he handles it very well.
“You can’t downplay the fact that he’s in a semester he doesn’t have any classes to deal with. It’s something he can handle, and he’ll do it well.”
