410 Forum — Opinion
SRC Officers Earn Their Money
By Meagan Birely
The economic crisis seems to be affecting everything, and universities are no exception.
A proposed $2 million will be cut from the higher education fund for the 2009-2010 school year. The University of Northern Colorado will feel this cut greatly. To prepare for this deficit, the Student Fee Allocation Process at UNC was difficult to work with this year because each club and organization had to take a significant decrease.
The Student Representative Council had the same number of programs to allocate money to, but had $1.5 million less to work with than the year previous. Creating the budget seemed nearly impossible when they started, but somehow they managed to get it done.
Each program and group took an average of a 7.3 percent decrease from last year, and SRC took a larger decrease. Some groups volunteered to give up more of their money to help other struggling organizations. Then in the second SFAP meeting an idea was proposed that shook the council.
A student on the sidelines boldly claimed that in order to help alleviate the budget crisis, SRC members should give back the money they are paid because they “do nothing to deserve it.”
The tone of the room shifted to uneasy and the council members stared at one another trying to figure out who should respond.
The student who claimed this clearly did not do his homework before making such an intrepid statement. Despite budget cuts, the members of SRC should continue to have their tuition compensated for as payment because of the amount of work they put into the university.
SRC members are required to hold a minimum of 10 office hours a week. But out of the nine council members, not one member spends less then 15 hours a week working in the office.
These hours also do not include the outside time council members spend working on various projects.
Some representatives, like the student trustee, the vice president of academic affairs and the VP of legislative affairs, spend many hours outside of the university attending meetings at the faculty senate, at the Capitol, and at trustee meetings. They have their own jobs to perform when they are a part of another body like this.
Each member of the SRC has also been working all semester to get things done that would benefit the students.
For example, the President Charles Miles and VP of Academic Affairs Jordan Lamb are currently working on the process to contest a grade. This has already taken weeks out of their already busy schedules to get the ball rolling on this enormous task. Also SRC has been, and will continue to be, instrumental in the newly instituted plus-minus grading system by trying to find ways to improve it for students.
The student who claimed SRC does not deserve to be paid said that he believed this because SRC is not giving back to the students, so why should they get back from the school? When money you are paying to the university is going to things like this, this is a valid question to raise. You want to know that your money is going to good use, and good programs.
SRC does not have a good PR system. I can understand why the majority of students have no idea what SRC is doing until something gets done. Even if you attend the meetings you are not seeing the whole story.
So much goes on “behind the scenes.” But students next year will feel the affects of this year’s council whether they know it or not.
The student who said SRC is getting paid to do nothing should take a day to shadow a council member and then see if he still believes they are doing “nothing.”
