UNC Student Congress Finance Committee debates stipend fairness

Stipends were the main topic of discussion at Tuesday night’s Student Congress finance committee meeting.

Currently, some members of the executive and judicial branches of student government, such as the attorney general and the student body president, do receive stipends, but Student Congress members do not.

Finance committee chairman Josh Aristy said he does not think current stipends fulfill their original purpose.

“Sti pends were originally created for people who had to stay over the summer for jobs like student body president, but they have evolved to last throughout the whole school year,” he said.

Speaker Ivy Hardy said she does not think any groups should get stipends.

“I think student government should be a labor of love,” Hardy said. “I also don’t think one group should get a stipend if another doesn’t.”

One option is to start allocating stipends to Congress, as well. But Aristy voiced his concern about this solution.

“It seems problematic for Student Congress to fund itself,” Aristy said.

Sophomore representative Cole Simons pointed out that Congress could have someone in another branch of government handle stipend allocations to Congress.

“We have checks and balances. We could use someone else in another branch to look at Congress getting stipend money,” Simons said.

Aristy said taking away all stipends for these groups is not an ideal solution because some students need stipends to be able to afford to carry out their job’s responsibilities, but funds should be allocated more selectively.

“My suggestion would be to give stipends for people who qualify for work-study because that seems to be a pretty fair way to do what we’re trying to exemplify here,” Simons said.

Hardy said while the leaders of the executive and judicial branches work hard, Congress members do as well.

“If we’re going to give stipends to the two other branches, I think we should give them to Student Congress as well,” Hardy said.

To eliminate excessive stipend allocations, Hardy suggested a system in which student government members are reimbursed instead of given the freedom to create a budget based on their estimated needs.

“I wouldn’t be opposed to retroactive funding where people submit requests after the fact,” Hardy said.

Aristy said these proposed changes would not apply to the people currently receiving stipends, but only to future members of student government.

At the next Congress meeting set for Nov. 4, some current members of student government will be asked to speak for two minutes each in front of the full Congress to give insight on these proposed budget changes.

Aristy encouraged members of the Finance Committee to draft an amendment that would change how stipends are allocated to the three branches of student government.

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