If you haven’t seen the UCommons marketing materials yet, you have probably been living under a rock. From the buttons to the posters to the logo projected on the floor of the Student Union, the support for UCommons seems to be coming from everywhere.
There is a reason for this. A committee of administrators that work for the Union has a budget of $1,300 dollars in student money to make sure that it’s everywhere.
Some students — like the members of Students for a Democratic Society — take issue with the fact that student money is being used to promote the addition of another student fee.
SDS requested $850 from Student Congress to campaign against the fee. The finance committee of Student Congress considered the request last week and cut the amount down to $250. The full congress will consider SDS’s $250 request at Tuesday’s meeting, and they should pass it.
It isn’t fair that student fees are being used to promote the new Union fee while students who oppose the fee or the project currently have no funding at all.
The administrators who are pushing the fee increase are doing so with student money, and they don’t even pay into the fund.
It only makes sense that students who are opposed to the fee should have financial resources at their disposal as well. The playing field ought to be level.
This is not an attack on the proposed fee increase. We have already come out in support of students voting up or down on the project.
Union administrators are using student fees to “inform” students. SDS should also get funds to inform students of the other side of the issue.
