Our Undergraduate Student Government, ladies and gentlemen, is preparing to stab each and every one of you in the back in what must be one of the most twisted, underhanded moves that we have seen in our time at ASU.
USG, our supposed champion against the twin villainies of overpopulation and tuition increases, is attempting to siphon at least $7 million out of the pockets of students for no good reason. President Liz Simonhoff and her cronies in office are proposing an added fee of $150 per student, starting next year, while at the same time preaching platitudes about fighting for a tuition moratorium.
The audacity of it all could be admired if they weren't taking money straight out of our pockets.
Let us make this very clear: In the proposed plan, each student at ASU will pay an additional $75 a semester. This money will go into a fund. USG will have access to one-third of the money to do with as they please. (Nice for them, at minimum this would be more than $2 million.) The other two-thirds will be primarily under the control of an "independent" consortium of 10 students (conveniently, five are members of student government and the other five will be picked by USG members).
All this money is supposed to be split up between clubs on campus and anyone the USG decides has a good use for it.
Do you know who might have a good use for that money? The original owners!
We didn't come to ASU to have our money taken against our will and doled out at the whims of a small batch of our fellow students.
If USG had put this to a general vote, then maybe things would be different. Ask us, the student body, if we want to put our hard earned dollars (or our parents' dollars) in the pockets of random groups we aren't a part of, and we will answer. However, that opportunity was not given. Instead the USG will take this to a vote at the Arizona Board of Regents meeting on Dec. 6 without student consent. All students can do now is go to a tuition hearing on Thursday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and tell ABOR (the governing body for in-state universities) that we want nothing to do with this highway robbery. The meeting will take place in Old Main. Be there or be more broke than usual next semester.
As a final note, we'll leave you with the crowning hypocrisy of the whole thing. Although USG is pushing for a tuition increase freeze, it's more likely that tuition will jump about five percent next year. With the $150 added on, that's more than an eight percent jump for in-state students, the largest in years. Thanks USG!
It's good to know you're on our side.
