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Senator blasts SA stipend hike

Letter to the Editor

Published: Thursday, April 29, 2010

Updated: Thursday, April 29, 2010 09:04

    Astonishingly, when we the students are suffering from tuition hikes and an economic recession, the Student Association Board of Finance, which is chaired by Jesse Cresent and Student Association (SA) President Joshua Sussman, proposed an internal budget that took an additional $5,250 from student groups to give raises to 15 SA student positions.

   This means that this year the total amount of funds that go towards SA stipends will be $74,000. When this section of the proposal came before the Senate, At-Large Senator Ben Jacobs discussed his passionate concern about the stipends and motioned to amend the budget so that all the stipends will be directly cut in half.

   The majority of the Senate disagreed with this idea and struck down the amendment. After the failure of this amendment I also stressed my deep concerns about the use of this money and proposed another amendment — that all SA raises be removed from the budget.

   The Senators voted on my amendment and it failed, 6-15-5. Only six senators out of the 26 present were in support of getting rid of the raises – At-Large Senator Ben Jacobs, Empire Senator Willow Burns, At-Large Senator Jaqi Cohen, Freedom Senator Stephen Guarneri, At-Large Senator Katherine Murtha, and myself, Off-Campus Senator Adam Feisthamel.

   All of the other 20 senators that you elected, including Senate Chairman Paul McCarthy, Vice Chairman Andrew Ziegelstein, and all the newly re-elected At-large Senators besides Senator Cohen and Guarneri, either abstained from voting or voted in favor of the raises. The Senate overall approved of the raises despite the fact that it was completely inappropriate.

   This additional money should not be going to the pockets of our elected and appointed officials; it should be going back into the pockets of the students.

   We the students have suffered from tuition hikes and an economic recession; we the students have suffered from cuts to the university; and we the students deserve this money, not our elected and appointed officials!

   Step into our meetings, voice your concerns, give us support. Our next and final budget meeting is on Wednesday April 28 at 7:15 in LC7.

   Don't hesitate to say what's on your mind, those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

Eternally yours,

Adam J. Feisthamel
Off-campus senator
 

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2 comments Log in to Comment

Adam Feisthamel
Fri Apr 30 2010 19:21
Firstly, Sen. Bonilla you as well have done an amazing job serving the Student Association and your constituents during your duration at UAlbany. I have enjoyed going to your ATV shows and listening to you voice your opinion on legislation that comes before the Senate and the Rules and Operations committee.

Although a good portion of the time we see eye to eye, this issue seems to be an exception. I understand your rational about having stipends to help economically disadvantaged students. However, I don’t understand why the Student Association cuts the stipends that are given to student groups and increases the amount of stipends given to their own SA personnel. Why do we care so much about the economically disadvantaged personnel that apply to student association positions but don’t care about the economically disadvantaged personnel that apply to other student group/organization positions? If we are going to give our own members stipends then why can’t we give other student groups and organizations a stipend of some sort? The current actions of the Student Association to me seems like an abuse of our organizations power to hand out stipends and a unfair suppression of our fellow constituents.

Joe Bonilla
Thu Apr 29 2010 15:56
Let me be the first to say that Sen. Feisthamel has never backed down from what he believed what is right for the Student Association and for the students he represents off-campus.

That being said, the purpose of having stipends for Student Association officers and employees is to prevent economic disadvantage for those willing to serve their fellow students. These stipends by no stretch are "golden parachutes" - they range from $500 to $4,500 for the full academic year, otherwise well below minimum wage when you take into account the minimum ten hour a week requirement (in which in order for the events and endeavors the Student Association puts on, many exceed this requirement).

I voted against this amendment due to (1) stipends have not been increased across-the-board without taking into account cost-of-living-adjustments (COLA) and (2) it's specifically in the bylaws that govern the organization that we together need to support those who may not be well off serve and work in SA.

With all consideration from last night's budget meeting, the argument that stipends are taking away from student group funding I don't believe can be warranted. If one says stipends are taking away funds from RSOs, the same could be said for providing services to Dippikill, paying for our organizational insurance, ensuring proper legal representation of all students through Student Legal Services, and funding wonderful events such as the World Within Reach Speaker Series. And how will advocacy, events, and focused student leadership happen? Through the small compensation we collectively as student activity fee paying students give to those who give up higher paying positions to make campus life better for all of us.

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