2008 Woodie Awards
WU administration should pay up
Issue date: 9/6/07 Section: Opinion and Editorial
- Page 1 of 1
For the past year, the Student Government Association has struggled to pay for the Student Readership Program, moving funds, asking for additional revenue and cutting money given to student trips. The university should pay for the program, which provides the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and USA Today free of charge to students, because it fosters education.
The program costs SGA 35 cents per paper and $1,000 to $3,000 a month. The organization primarily funds student groups and trips, and the readership program receives a large amount of SGA's budget.
"The student organizations on campus are growing faster than our budget is," said SGA president Elizabeth Eisele, a senior broadcast journalism major.
With more student groups wanting money from SGA, it has become increasingly difficult for SGA to provide funds as well as to pay for the readership program. During the spring semester, SGA had to eliminate at least 10 percent of each student grant request. In March, the Anime Society requested $1,500 to fund a trip to an anime convention in Illinois and received $500. In the same month, Habitat for Humanity went to New Orleans and received only $1,000 of the $1,500 it requested.
Last semester, in an attempt to gain additional revenue, SGA senators approached departmental deans for funds to support the program. The attempts were unsuccessful - no department donated money. This year, SGA is again trying to obtain money for the Readership Program from department heads. Since the deans declined to donate the first time around, it's probable they will refuse again. Department officials have limited budgets and want to support undertakings that support their department, not the entire school. It is unfair for one department to help pay for the Readership Program if others aren't as well.
Academic Affairs needs to help SGA pay for the program. Providing newspapers to the student body is an academic endeavor. Since the program was instituted, many professors in political science, history and journalism have required their students to read the papers on a regular basis. Others have encouraged student readership or used the on-campus papers for an occasional assignment. Now that the readership program has become part of academic curricula, it is the responsibility of the university to cover the costs.
The university should stop forcing SGA to beg for money and shuffle funding. The result is students and student organizations become a lower priority, when they should be SGA's primary focus. The university should fund - completely, if not partially - this educational program that informs students about both their local and global communities.
The program costs SGA 35 cents per paper and $1,000 to $3,000 a month. The organization primarily funds student groups and trips, and the readership program receives a large amount of SGA's budget.
"The student organizations on campus are growing faster than our budget is," said SGA president Elizabeth Eisele, a senior broadcast journalism major.
With more student groups wanting money from SGA, it has become increasingly difficult for SGA to provide funds as well as to pay for the readership program. During the spring semester, SGA had to eliminate at least 10 percent of each student grant request. In March, the Anime Society requested $1,500 to fund a trip to an anime convention in Illinois and received $500. In the same month, Habitat for Humanity went to New Orleans and received only $1,000 of the $1,500 it requested.
Last semester, in an attempt to gain additional revenue, SGA senators approached departmental deans for funds to support the program. The attempts were unsuccessful - no department donated money. This year, SGA is again trying to obtain money for the Readership Program from department heads. Since the deans declined to donate the first time around, it's probable they will refuse again. Department officials have limited budgets and want to support undertakings that support their department, not the entire school. It is unfair for one department to help pay for the Readership Program if others aren't as well.
Academic Affairs needs to help SGA pay for the program. Providing newspapers to the student body is an academic endeavor. Since the program was instituted, many professors in political science, history and journalism have required their students to read the papers on a regular basis. Others have encouraged student readership or used the on-campus papers for an occasional assignment. Now that the readership program has become part of academic curricula, it is the responsibility of the university to cover the costs.
The university should stop forcing SGA to beg for money and shuffle funding. The result is students and student organizations become a lower priority, when they should be SGA's primary focus. The university should fund - completely, if not partially - this educational program that informs students about both their local and global communities.
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