The projected cumulative rate of U.S. inflation from 2015 to 2019 is 6.1 percent. If the Student Activity Fee (SAF) from 2015-2016 were increased by 6.1 percent, it would amount to $97.61 per student. In Student Government Association (SGA)’s email to undergraduates, the “projected” 2019-2020 SAF is listed as $103.50, an increase of over 9 percent since 2015, significantly more than is needed to adjust for inflation.
SGA legislators attempted to justify the increase by claiming that the SAF should increase with University tuition, which has increased in recent years at a faster rate than U.S. inflation. The smooth non-sequitur in a recent OrgSync announcement asserting that the SAF should increase along with tuition to ensure students don’t “continue to pay more tuition every year for diminishing returns of quality of campus life experience” is obviously false; as long as the SAF increases with inflation, the spending power of SGA will remain constant.
Moreover, students are being asked to trust an irresponsible legislature not only embroiled in financial crisis, but also facing presidential impeachment proceedings. Since the last time the SAF increased, SGA and its divisional councils have waylaid thousands of student funds. A total of $37,500 was lost in Student Programming Council’s (SPC) Migos fiasco, and SGA over-allocated more than $28,000. The sum of those mishaps — $65,500 — amounts to half of the additional estimated $125,800 in funds SGA would receive annually by increasing the SAF.
Last fall, SGA also abjectly failed to carry out a legitimate audit of club spending.
Unsurprisingly, students previously objected to a SAF increase. In 2014, 79 percent of voters in a University-wide referendum rejected a $21 increase in the SAF. On the surface, SGA’s motivations appear innocent — and hopefully they are. But if SGA cannot accurately audit or equitably distribute the funds it already has, how can it ask the student body for more?
Additionally, Student Governance Services (SGS) and University administrators who oversee SGA have not shared responsibility for its snafus, choosing not to offer apologies for the Migos scandal and SGA’s recent over-allocation mess.
Students should reject SGA’s current bid to alter the Finance Code until protections are put in place by the University to ensure legislators and officials adhere to their constitution, carry out fair elections and equitably allocate the SAF without mishap.
If anything, SGA’s activities over the last four years suggest that unqualified undergraduate students cannot be trusted to manage over $1 million in student money. I certainly don’t trust them with mine.
Madeline Lutwyche (20C) is from Baltimore.
Associate Editor | mlutwyc@emory.edu
Madeline Lutwyche (20C) is from Baltimore and studies math and computer science. After serving as opinion editor from Fall 2017 to Spring 2019, Lutwyche is now an associate editor. This past summer, she worked as a software development intern for IBM and spent Fall 2019 abroad in Salamanca, Spain. If you can't find her, she's probably taking a nap somewhere in the Wheel offices.
