I would like to take a moment to address the Editorial Board’s commentary on the issue of student programs charging for events. Indeed, it is a complex dilemma, a prototypical example of the opposing forces that drive the PFC’s decisions every year.
On the one hand, as the Board so charmingly put it, you are being “ripped off.” Indisputably, students pay an extraordinary amount in incidental fees, and are rightly entitled to reap the benefits that fee supports. On the contrary, when it comes to programming and event organization, the amount of incidental fees allocated to most programs is grossly inadequate. As author of Senate Rule 13.7, I feel safe in saying that the rule represents the former way of looking at our dilemma.
However, it ignores the fact that if a significant number of students decided they no longer were able to afford paying for admission to events, the result would be one of two equally unattractive options. One, the incidental fee would increase by the same amount ticket revenues decreased (a not-so-insignificant number), or two, the size, quality and accessibility of programs’ events would diminish to the point of irrelevance. Neither of those had yet occurred, because students were in large part unaware of the option Rule 13.7 provided, but that is not so true now that the Emerald has begun covering the topic.
Since your first article, numerous program representatives and the ASUO Executive have contacted me with worries about the impact giving out tickets has on their event budgets. Thus, the Student Senate Rules Committee has the revision of this rule as its first item of business. The current suggestion is to allow student programs to charge admission to events, but to require that any revenue generated through those ticket sales be used for the next year’s programming. The reasoning behind this is that it strikes a balance between funding sources for programs’ events and holding increases in your incidental fee to a minimum, while maintaining the quality and integrity of student programming.
Before I finish, I would like to address the only one of the Board’s allegations that I find to be entirely unfounded. “Attention students: You are currently being screwed … The ASUO Student Senate doesn’t care.” I am more than receptive to criticisms of my decisions, my demeans, handling of Senate matters, et cetera, but I am honestly offended by the suggestion that I or any of my colleagues does not care.
I would venture to say that we all do, but I am obviously only one, and will speak for only one when I say that I care a great deal. Still, as much as we care, we don’t often hear from others of you that do, and it is terribly hard to set policy in a vacuum.
For their assistance in getting the word out, I thank the Emerald, but I would prefer to find myself thanking you for having come in to ask about something, or to tell me that you think I’m wrong and you’re vehemently pissed off about it. So in closing, I join the Emerald in asking you to stop by EMU Suite 4 and see us about any of your concerns, or better yet, to run for an office in the upcoming ASUO elections.