Dear Generation,
In response to your “The Ashes of American Flags” article, I did a quick research on the rates of student fees at other schools. I concluded that Buffalo’s student fee is actually very modest, when compared to the rates of the following schools: “Brown University students pay a fee of $136, Columbia students pay $245, University of Pennsylvania students pay $141, Cornell students pay $162 and Princeton students pay $60. Dartmouth students are required to pay the most, with an activities fee of $540. At each school, student governments or student finance committees oversee the allocation of the money raised by the fees. The money usually goes to funding student organizations and social events, the report said,” (http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=27902).
And as with any school, and as seen in national elections, voter apathy is an inevitable problem in politics. With that said, there really is no main reason, I think, that is responsible for UB’s apathy towards the election for the council in charge of the $2.4 million generated by our activity fee.
Face it, in such a gi-normous school, students will be involved with their own agendas and most probably came to school with the original goal of graduating with a good education and doing whatever it takes for them to complete their priorities. I think it is not that likely to find a super over-achieving student in UB who will commit to both student governments and their academics, or a super super super senior who has dedicated their entire undergraduate life to the student government. You will find those in between—like the 12 students who were actually interested in the open seats.
However, I think there are some possible ways to make the voting system better. Perhaps the event and council was not effectively targeted to the right students, like those in the political science major, or those in finance and accounting majors at UB. Maybe it isn’t that students are apathetic, but that the events are not effectively communicated in a “spicy” way to entice eager ambitious undergraduates.
- Eliza Cheung
Dear Eliza,
While it is true that some schools pay more than us in student fees, you also have to take into account the fact that schools like Yale, whose fee is the focus of the article you cite, do not make them mandatory. Students can opt not to contribute towards the student activities budget, yet still receive the services that the money is earmarked for. We on the other hand, as was upheld in a referendum put before the student body last year, are obligated to pay the student activity fee whether we agree with it or not.
Don’t get me wrong though, I in no way believe that the fee should be abolished, SA provides a number of valuable services to this school, some of which were mentioned in my original article. In addition to the $2.4 million allocated directly to SA, there is an additional $400,000 in fees that fund among other things Subboard I, Inc., the body that runs everything from WRUB to the Anti-Rape Task Force to this here magazine that you’re reading now.
For this year’s Fallfest, SA is bringing in Kanye West—money well spent in my opinion. But who’s to say that everyone at UB, or indeed even the majority of students agree with me? The focus of my column was to educate the student body to the fact that they have a say in the way their money is being spent and that they are failing to do this. Regardless of mitigating circumstances, this apathy is appalling, and in a large state university like ours, it is indicative of the overwhelming absence of the youth voice in politics. Notwithstanding the cancelled election, it has now become our job as students to carefully watch SA and to make sure that our earlier apathy doesn’t translate into their misappropriation of our funds.
Vigilantly Yours,
Christopher Ahearn
Editor in Chief
