But, hey, I voted in all of the ASUO elections while I was there, I campaigned tirelessly against OSPIRG and the OSA, hell, I even ran once, for all the good it does.

Interesting aside, IIRC groups without fee allotments can’t get EMU office space.

BONUS: Don’t miss one of the most unintentionally hilarious letters in ODE history:

Dreier seeks leadership through fear

I don’t often take an interest in campus politics, but the article about Tim Dreier in the Emerald (”ASUO ticket vows to eliminate ‘Red threat’ on campus,” ODE, Feb. 15) caught my eye and left me with a question — is this a joke?

I could barely believe that someone would actually make statements like these, and to be running for a student government office. Tim Dreier’s statements and policies are the kind of paranoid ignorance that we can only pray can be healed.

“Subversives?” Who are they? What are they subversive to? What’s “un-American?” What’s the threat posed by Communism? I don’t see Dreier clarifying any of these. And dueling pistols to solve differences? If that’s not a joke, I sincerely would believe him to be mad. Because I know that it will be the instant reaction of anyone sympathetic to Dreier to label me as a left-wing subversive, I must say that I am not. I have never in my life considered myself political at all and do not hold allegiance or sympathies to any political group.

Tim Dreier is running on buzzwords and paranoia. He wants to gain leadership over other students by playing off of vague fears and enforced conformity. He will not be getting my vote.

Nathan Edwards

junior
english

Eliminating the OC’s line item from the budget would not impact the per-student fee and the extra money would simply go into the surplus. In addition, groups like Students for Choice and the Insurgent would not follow our lead. If the ASUO is going to continue to subsidize political speech, we would be irrational to not submit a budget. So would the ODE and every other group receiving incidental fee revenues.

But this isn’t about the Commentator and it isn’t about the righteousness of the incidental fee. It’s about the $1 million in surplus funds that was taken from students and should be returned. Again, ask the students either by a large sample survey (that includes a healthy portion of people unaffiliated with student unions and fraternities) or by a direct election what they’d like done with their money. Or give it back to them and give them the opportunity to put it into a fund that will go to school infrastructure improvements or beautification efforts. Just allow us, the student body, to choose what to do with our money.

I suggest that I don’t particularly care and that it isn’t particularly my problem. The last I checked the child care subsidy served 172 students, you’re saying that 20,000 people are responsible for ensuring that 172 people who got knocked up of their own volition can afford college, that’s frankly ridiculous on its face. Yes, you are arguing with a cruel, heartless person. Yes, I am okay with that. Although I do think your bake sale idea has some merit, seems to work for the Pocket Playhouse.

As a publication the benefit is there of being able to sell advertising space great but what about the other groups that are necessary and integral to this campus?

I’d argue that there are not groups necessary and integral to campus other than those things called “classes” that current students pay, and I paid, good money for. That said, there are arguably legitimate uses of the incidental fee and while I argue for its complete destruction, I realize that’s like arguing we abolish the income tax: futile and somewhat hilarious. Therefore, the important issue is how the expenditure of said fees materially benefits campus. The Marching Band obviously contributes to the campus culture in a way that many other groups obviously don’t. It’s also the largest student group, so that’s got to count for something.

My main issues with fee-funded groups are as follows, in no particular order:

1) Stipends. It’s complete bollocks that people get paid for what are essentially extra-curricular activities, especially because stipends comprise such a large proportion of many student group budgets. You don’t deserve to be paid for the time you put into the ASUO/MEChA/Multicultural Center/Band/whatever, it’s that simple. This stuff amounts to a hobby, a trial run, and as such at best should be treated like unpaid internships.

2) Food. It’s also complete bollocks that student groups get food budgets to use student money to buy sandwiches. Go down to Suite Four sometime, get all the POs from the last few years (I did this regarding the Exec under the Melton/Morales regime) and look at what gets dropped on food for student group meetings. It’s a pervasive problem, because absolutely pays attention. Try getting a PO approved for printing and dup of, say, a student magazine and then try to get a food request approved by Senate (although with the new rules, IIRC, some small food requests no longer require Senate approval) and see which is more difficult. I promise it’s the former.

3) Off-Campus/Out-of-town events. How does going on a retreat, or to a conference or any number of other things materially benefit anyone on campus other than the participants? I watched the Mediation team get plane tickets to Boise for some event, their excuse that driving would actually cost more: Which the Senate bought and was patently untrue at the time given the per diem for milage and the distance. If you want to go to a conference out of town, that’s great, fine, but you should be required to pay for it yourself. Get a sponsor, sell your eggs or other gametes, I don’t really care but it is emphatically not the job of other students to pay for your vacation. The same goes for ASUO-sponsored “leadership retreats” and whatnot.

4) Groups whose budgets go completely off-campus: OSPRIG, USSA, OSA to name the big three. Combined they cost roughly $200,000 a year in incidental fee money, provide no benefit to campus, and illegally use same for direct political action. If you want to start someplace, start there.

Then my suggestion would be to do your part and put your money where your mouth is: stop submitting a budget to the PFC. That would help decrease the I Fee right?

Sure, it would in a way, but I think the most legitimate use of student fees is student media. That goes for the Voice, the Insurgent, the OC, the ODE and whatever other various newsletters/zines are getting published with the incidental fee these days. The ODE only gets about 10% of its operating budget from the incidental fee, by the by, and that goes right to P&D. The OC’s money is mostly fee-driven, but the website, software, computers, and distribution boxes are all paid for by alumns or fundraising. The Voice and Insurgent are completely fee-funded and the last I checked actually paid stipends to their Editors, which is pretty pathetic given their quality and lack of output. Every fee dollar of the OC goes into printing the OC, which any student can read around campus and any student is more than welcome to work for, so hey, at least we’re inclusive.

Besides, if we know we’re going to be forced to fund those Stalinists at the Insurgent, we might as well make them pay our bills.

Then my suggestion would be to do your part and put your money where your mouth is: stop submitting a budget to the PFC. That would help decrease the I Fee right?

Well, this is an issue I disagree with Tim on. I think that the child care subsidy is a worthy thing to spend money on, along with a few other groups. This would ideally be done through the University administration, but whatever. What it comes down to is that there’s no good reason students should be paying for groups to advocate political views (i.e. the Commentator, Students for Choice, etc..)

Why not make the university responsible? Sure, maybe tuition would go up, but surplus or not, there is no effort being made in the status quo to reduce the cost of education for students. Oh yeah, except for dumping money into the gaping maws of the USSA and OSPIRG, a move not unlike buying lottery tickets as a business strategy.

The ODE can fund itself independently through only advertising fees. The Commentator website is funded independently and we receive enough funding through grants to continue publishing (albeit at a reduced number of issues.) The Commentator would eagerly cheer for its own defunding if it meant that every other publication and special interest group receiving incidental fee revenue had their trough privileges revoked.

Additionally, just to be clear groups can not spend money on food for meetings and things. They can for events and things of that nature nor can they use incidental fees to make money, unless it goes into a specific account to be used on the next years event. Additionally, according to current regulations fundraising CANNOT be used for food for meetings and the like…

Sure it can. The trick is to call the meeting an event and, if necessary, hold it with another group.

And, again, the best solution is actually the elimination of the incidental fee. That’s over $600 a years in savings, which is more than the tuition freeze these idiots keep lobbying for will save anyone.

Ted: That’s not technically true, there was one year in the late 1980s when the OC got $100 of stipend money. Just for full disclosure.

Oh, and I am involved… somehow the Commentator has contributed greatly to campus life for nearly a quarter of a century without spending a single cent of student fees on food, stipends, retreats or gala fundraising events. If we can do it, why can none of the studen unions exist without regular meals, etc on the students dime?

If you are so hell bent on spending the money without ever setting up a refund, maybe shouldn’t we be offering free meals to students based on financial need? I can see it now: The Broke-Ass Student Union. Makes a lot more sense than the way things are going now…

And this is just a spectacular statement. You “participate on campus” by going to class. There is no conceivable way that the $1 million could be spent by the Senate and, as a consequence, have every student receive more than $50 in benefits.

The solution is simple: leave it up to the students. Ask them through an election or survey. It’s their money, not yours.

The incidental fee is not social security.