Truth - I'm with you!!!   What has happened to critical thinking  - isn't the SGA composed of LEADERS who you'd imagine would know how to put their brains to work?  Shouldn't leaders be able to think for themselves???  Don't see it happening.

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Originally posted by: Flash Gordon
"Can you spell PAYOFF?"

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Occam said, "Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

30+ years ago, I observed that student government was not exactly the domain of the "best & brightest." Like all politics, it is the domain of those who win elections. In those benighted days, that generally meant "Greek," because that was the only faction that could organize block voting. Dunno about today...

Of course, some folks insist on believing that winning an election has a significant positive impact on a person's IQ. You can believe that, too, if it helps you sleep.

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Originally posted by:
"If anyone has any question that SGA is in the president's hip pocket after reading this thread..."

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FS -- thanks again and again and again for providing this forum.

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Originally posted by: truth4usm
"This is unbelievable....read the article in the latest Student Printz about the proposed SGA budget: http://www.printz.usm.edu/ It is full of little tidbits like this (my bolded text): During the meeting, when Moss asked where increased funds for the budget would come from, SGA Vice President Jonathan Krebs said that was not a concern for the senators. “The job of the senate is to locate these funds, not to determine where they are coming from,” said Krebs. “It’s up to the administration to approve or deny it.” Treasurer Chad Cornett told senators the budget funds were a mixture of fees granted to the SGA from student fees, outside funding, carryover and other funding.

Wow!  This sure does sound peculiar!  Suddenly the SGA has more than TWICE as much money to spend this year than it had last year?  And the source of the funds is not made clear?  And this is happening at a time when everything / everyone else is suffering cutbacks?  And the money is needed partly to set up a website?  (How much does it cost FS to maintain this one?  Almost nothing, I would guess.) 

Whatever happened to the days when the students were the ones who insisted on speaking truth to power?  I realize that the SGA is not representative of the student body as a whole, but that fact in itself should be troubling.

My only personal experience with an SGA president suggested that these folks are sometimes merely resume-builders who intend to continue the practice after they graduate.  If he keeps this up, maybe Mr. Cain can become a Vice President for Economic Development someday.

 

Please don't overlook the amazing similarity of the numbers in the two SGA related articles on the Printz front page.  The SGA budget mysteriously increases by about $100,000.  The SGA sponsored Train concert cost $100,000, and money was provided by SFT for the educational and entertaining value of the event.  Can't verify this, but I've been told that $100,000 is also about the amount of money the now defunct Honors College University Forum would require.

Consider this as well:  the now approved SGA budget provides $10,000 for "SGA Retreat/SGA Black & Gold Ball," while allocating only $2000 for the funding of student organizations.  Only 6 student organizations were funded this year, and I believe 3 organizations that applied for funding were denied, yet rumour has it that the Budgets and Appointments committee "didn't need" to see how much was expended so far in 2003-2004 budget to decide what to allocate for this year.  How can Walt & Co justify spending 5 times as much on events that serve only SGA associates, while the over 200 student organizations on campus spend a good deal of their time fundraising?