After years of skyrocketing and unaccountable student fees, the recent groundswell of opposition to the Student Services Finance Committee budgets has been nothing short of heartwarming.
For the first time in nine years, your student government has finally managed to offend its way into conversations all across this apathetic campus.
Until recently, no student group had shown the chutzpah to request amounts of what can only be described as scholarships and free laptops in a $1 million budget proposal.
Most of the criticism of SSFC’s decision to award even half of this amount to the Multicultural Student Coalition has been well deserved.
Ethically speaking, just because one has figured out how to give unsupervised, unaccountable employment and non-returnable laptops to friends does not mean that one is entitled to do so.
It is not fair to categorize the people in these organizations as completely amoral or corrupt. Many of them believe in their hearts that they are doing the right thing. Many of them simply do not see through the same lens as their fellow seg-fee-paying students. They do not look at these budgets and see the outrageous spending increases. They are too focused on their own world to see that their attitude of entitlement is not only negatively affecting the outside perception of their activities and alienating the largest freshman class in UW-Madison history, but also jeopardizing the health of the entire student-fee system.
Therein lies the real lesson in this shocking episode. The problem is not just with the scapegoat MCSC — there are other student organizations that have received equally unjustified amounts of money.
These bloated budgets are no accident. The trend in astronomical increases did not begin this year. Despite his subtle posturing and the wishful thinking of student media, when the Chancellor gets a chance to review these budgets, he will do the same thing seg-fee-paying students will do when they pay their tuition next year: Bend over, grab his ankles and keep his mouth shut.
This is but a specter, but within five years, at least one student group will have requested $10 million from SSFC. Having been on the inside, I can say that unless something drastic is done, there is no limit to the rewards that will be bestowed on these lucky few. The administration bureaucrats will once again show they do not really care about students but about avoiding controversy at all costs.
What would be “drastic” action?
Drastic would be every single student, no matter how little previous political experience, dragging him or herself to tonight’s Student Council meeting (listed on the TITU board in either Union or on the Union’s website) and making some noise. This could be visual noise or verbal noise.
If this is done, based upon past experience, you can expect your elected student government to attempt to ignore you. Also based upon past experience, you can expect seg-fee funded groups to bring all their newfound employees/friends to challenge you both physically and verbally.
Given that a seg-fee revolution is needed, this potentially troublesome scene is necessary. Unless this significant scene is created at this meeting, you will once again be subject to the iron fist of your student government over your bottom line.
Since I graduate in December, I have no personal interest in your tuition bill next year. This is up to you. Will you stand next to your Chancellor with your ankles firmly in grasp, or will you stand up next to your fellow students against the outrage of unaccountable abuse?
The choice is yours.
Leif Jorgensen ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in finance.
