Your Student Assembly unanimously passed the 2010 Student Activities Fee Allocation Act of 2010 and the Why Three People Act during Tuesday night’s meeting.
The Allocation Act raises the student activities fee from last year’s $87 to $89 which will amount to a total student activities budget of $600,750. Assuming that you don’t really care that the Tea Drinker Society was awarded $110 for their operating budget I will stick to the big ticket items. AMP is far and away the most expensive student organization with an allocation of 135,500, a vast majority of which goes to various concerts and speakers. Steer Clear comes in a distant second with an allocation of $14,771, almost all of which goes to drivers wages.
The important thing to understand about the student activities budget is that only $190,486 goes to student clubs and organizations. The other two thirds are divided between student government ($78,777), the student activities fund ($78,000), operation costs ($93,000) and the publications council ($148,472).
While it’s impossible to put a price on student journalism, it is important to think about these expenditures objectively and not in the context of this year’s budget, which looks remarkably similar to this next year’s budget. Not really being much of a social butterfly myself, I’m actually having a hard time thinking about student government’s budget, most of which goes to various extravaganzas. I pose this question to you, dear reader, is the King and Queen Ball worth the $5,000 it has been given? Is the homecoming pep rally worth the $5,000 it has been given? Is the SA’s fleet of self-propelled mind-controlling earwigs worth the $7,500 it has been given? Just kidding.
The one expenditure that I can swiftly condemn without having experienced, thankfully, is the $1,500 allocated towards the Honor Council’s operating expenses. While I can’t imagine how much pig’s blood the Honor Council requires to operate at full capacity, I assure you that it does not cost $1,500. Coincidentally, the Honor Council is the only organization that requested more than $1,000 that was fully funded. The metal club requested $1,000 which was met in full, but they put on two sweet metal shows.
Usually, I try not to get too involved in the comment boards, but if anyone is confused about the budget feel free to e-mail me or post a comment and I will do my best to respond in a timely manner.
The Why Three People Act demands that the Williamsburg Chair of Zoning Appeals C. Stewart Goddin clarify his statement that the three person rule was in place to keep large immigrant families from living together in confined spaces. He said this during a March 2nd hearing regarding a student’s violation of the three person rule to assure her that the rule doesn’t target students, it targets immigrants. I’m sure everyone in attendance greatly appreciated this clarification that Williamsburg does not, in fact, hate students. Williamsburg hates immigrants.
Regarding shameless self promotion…
This Thursday I will be conducting another exciting “Internet Interview” with the only real reform ticket running in the March 31 SA elections. Hint: It’s not Brown-Manning.
And if you haven’t had enough of the Zerbo Zone, I will be live blogging the SA presidential debate that takes place this Sunday from 3 to 4 pm in the Commonwealth Auditorium. Be sure to not attend and simply accept my version of the debate as fact.
