Before announcing his bid to become the next president of Emory University’s Student Government Association (SGA), Second-year SGA Legislator Seth Weinfield (27C) proposed College Council legislation to create stipends for College Council legislators. The bill, which Weinfield proposed last month, aimed to provide financial compensation to future legislators who satisfy specific objectives, such as maintaining a high general body meeting attendance record and introducing legislation. College Council ultimately tabled the bill unanimously, according to College Council President Jannat Khan (25C).
Weinfield’s effort to compensate College Council legislators came after College Council passed a bill to pay the council’s executive branch — the president, vice president, vice president of finance and speaker — on Dec. 5, 2024. Khan wrote in an email to The Emory Wheel that the plan to pay the executive branch was halted because Emory Human Resources and University administration reevaluated the compensation method. According to Khan, College Council is working with the administration to find a “more equitable stipend scheme” that holds paid individuals accountable and considers the number of hours worked in payment amounts.
Assistant Director of University Communications Rachel Smith echoed a similar sentiment to Khan in an email to the Wheel, writing that the University will consult with College Council regarding the bill.
“The recently passed resolution from College Council calls for a broader discussion with many university entities, including student governance, to ensure alignment with monetary codes, student leadership principles, HR policies, and other relevant processes to support proper stewardship of Student Activity Funds,” Smith wrote.
Both bills follow SGA’s lead, whose members in the same positions began receiving $2,500 stipends in 2023. Some of the stipend money came from the SGA’s operational budget, which includes the Student Activity Fee (SAF). The SAF is a $118 fee that all Emory students must pay each semester to fund undergraduate student organizations. Jannat wrote in an email to the Wheel that the College Council executive branch stipends, if enacted next year, would also come from the SAF. Similarly, Weinfield told the Wheel that he planned for his proposed stipend to draw from the SAF in addition to the organization’s discretionary fund.
Weinfield emphasized that he intended his proposal to pay College Council legislators to open a conversation about compensating leaders in student government.
“I just wanted to get a conversation going to make the College Council as [much] of an equitable place as possible,” Weinfield said.
Weinfield said his primary motivation for the proposed bill was to make College Council and student government more inclusive to low-income students and believed stipends could help accomplish this.
“We need to make student government a place [where] those who may be a bit more socio-economically disadvantaged can have a place where they can provide for their community," Weinfield said.
Weinfield said he expects backlash from the student body if stipends are enacted in the future, describing the process of implementing such a policy as a “balancing act.”
The bill also included a $1,000 lump sum payment to Third-year College Council Legislator and SGA Ranking Member Sohan Bellam (26C), which is intended to honor his “committed work.” This “inflated stipend” raised concerns among College Council members, according to Khan.
Bellam believes that stipends are an important topic within SGA but also feels that legislators should not be able to award stipends to themselves. He described the lump sum payment to him as “an unserious addition.” He believed its inclusion was to reward legislators that spent more time on College Council, and address disparities in effort across the legislature.
“For some people in College Council and SGA, you can think of them providing a service to students, right?” Bellam said. “If you’re the person doing the budget, and you’re looking through hundreds of club budgets each month, each year, that is sort of like doing a job, which is very different from someone whose job is to represent people as an elected member.”
Bellam echoed Weinfield’s concerns of potential student backlash and believed that considering insight from the student body is important before moving forward with any permanent legislation.
“We need to have some data input on how students feel before we can move forward,” Bellam said.
Student Programming Council (SPC) Executive Vice President Maya Degnemark (25B) described the importance of passion in student leadership and hoped that a potential stipend would not encourage students to run for student leadership for the wrong reasons.
“We want to ensure that presidents are still just as passionate about the work,” Degnemark said. “We have gone into this role because we really care about it. There’s been years and years of SGA presidents and College Council and SPC presidents who’ve also done the work because they’re passionate. And I would want to ensure that people are running for the right reasons.”
The bill also mentions plans for SPC and club sports to begin providing stipends to their executive leaders. SPC co-President Sophia Callender (25B) echoed Degnemark’s sentiment regarding how the stipend could influence peoples’ motivations for working in student leadership.
“I do feel a little bit worried about whether or not getting paid would change the reasons why someone would run for a position like this,” Callender said. “It’s a lot of work, and in order to be successful, I think you need to be very passionate about it.”
SPC co-President Howie Brown (26C) expressed support for compensating student leaders
“I’d say, generally speaking, we do totally support student leaders on campus being paid for … dedicating their time and energy to bettering this campus,” Brown said.
However, Brown also emphasized that potential stipends should not encroach on club leaders’ independence to make decisions for their organization.
“The thing for us that’s always most important is maintaining independence, and as long as stipends being paid by the school doesn’t affect our independence, our ability to make our own decisions as a club, we definitely support that for ourselves and for other student organizations on campus,” Brown said.
Khan said that she predicts there will be discussion surrounding stipends for College Council legislators in the future.
“Just to ensure just the ethics surrounding this compensation scheme, we are going to be working with administration to come up with something that can incentivize and bridge the gap for future student government leaders,” Khan said.
News Editor Lauren Yee (25Ox) contributed to reporting on this piece.
