The SGA insists each semester on trying to raise our fees one-way or another. If it’s not asking for a swimming pool by the bayou, it’s asking for an extra $60 to subsidize athletics, in the wake of more budget cuts.
So what’s the purpose of this $60 fee increase and where exactly is it going? Well…we don’t know really. And considering the contradictory statements coming from members of SGA, it looks like they don’t either—at least not all of them.
SGA President Calvin Stafford said students who aren’t involved in any organizations would still benefit from the referendum. But SGA senator Breana Boone said students not involved on campus probably wouldn’t want to pay the additional fees.
If the student body’s representatives aren’t on the same page and can’t explain what exactly the referendum is, how are the students supposed to understand—let alone vote for it?
Stafford and the SGA need to put their thoughts in a straight line, so they can give us the facts about this vote without backtracking or stumbling through the complexity of a bill they designed.
Why should the student body be forced to pay for an underfunded athletics program when student fees already make up a substantial part of the budget? Fees and tuition make up 66 percent of the budget at ULM.
If SGA wants to pass this referendum, they need to get a plan together and quick. Spring elections are fast approaching and the senate hasn’t even approved a measure to send to Baton Rouge for approval.
SGA is supposed to represent the students to the administration. But it seems that they’ve been representing the administration a lot more, especially these past few years.
SGA needs to get its act together and start initiating referendums only when necessary instead of whenever they think we need one.
Cebus • Feb 19, 2013 at 9:30 am
It appears to me that as an insider “looking in,” you’re incapable of accepting the possibility of students understanding the referendum and voting against it. Every official statement made by any member of SGA has been the same: the students must have voted against a referendum because they didn’t understand it and only saw a fee increase.
Breana Boone • Feb 10, 2013 at 10:38 am
SGA does represent the student body. The senators and officers all have different backgrounds as well different perspectives on this new referendum. Yes, this referendum will help all students, but as an outsider looking in all they see is the money increase. All members of SGA are well informed about this referendum and it is our job to help the students understand it. Although the fees are being consolidated, the money is still going to the same place it was before now being more helpful to all organizations not just athletics.