While the strategic elimination of funding to specific executive offices and student organizations by out-going Gauchoholic Leggies at Wednesday night’s Leg Council provided more fun for Daily Nexus reporters than a massive clown orgy, it was also an act of pure spite and bad form. By targeting those offices and organizations nearest and dearest to the hearts of SAC, the Gauchoholics left an anemic budget as well as a lethal dosage of venom coursing through A.S.’s blood stream.
As if SAC and the Gauchoholics didn’t get along well enough before these clever budget shifts, students can expect an ugly amount of infighting between these two parties all throughout next year’s administration. With an inexperienced internal vice president who didn’t bother to show up for the amusing but messy shit storm, the most students can hope for from A.S. is that they’ll keep from driving student government further into the ground.
All the bad blood stems from the strategic placement of funding for various offices and student groups into various accounts like Tech Support. While A.S. may have an excellent computer system next year, they won’t be able to do much except learn how to use all their fancy equipment.
The failure of the base fee left a majority of student organizations facing near-death in terms of A.S. funding. The damage done by shifting around the remaining bit of cash in the budget won’t inflict any mortal wounds, but it does drive another nail in the coffin.
If student groups don’t wise up about fund raising activities, then they’ll be dead in the water for the entire year. Students can kiss things like Halloween festivities and Herstory goodbye.
The Gauchoholics also hit funding for the executive offices and honoraria – a quarterly stipend for students holding office in A.S. This is a reasonable concession. In a slim year, A.S. office holders should be the first to feel the pinch. Cutting the majority of the funding to executive offices, however, leaves them numb and limp. Without cash for travel, the external vice president for statewide affairs is just another warm body in a cushy chair.
What the whole dirty incident comes down to is a bunch of sore, petty jocks picking on the “special” kids who ride the short bus.
But something good can come from even the worst of situations. SAC needs to learn the vital lesson that while thinking with your heart makes you feel warm and fuzzy, those who think with their heads will run you down. SAC might still have a chance to recover from the brutal Gauchoholic tactics, but they need to act fast and work hard.
The rest of A.S., from Leg Council on down to the student groups, should greatly reconsider how they operate. Dependence on A.S. for funding will only get you so far; when the teat runs dry, you’ll be left hungry and cranky.
Only Dan Edgar, the sole Gauchoholic who refused to vote along party lines, managed to escape this political circus with some dignity. Everyone else looks like a big-top freak with its pants down and genitals exposed.
