USG proposes changes to the by-laws

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Categorized | News, USG

Posted on 02 December 2009

On Nov. 18, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) met for their weekly meeting in the Memorial Union Building (MUB) to discuss campus-wide policies and procedures. One of the topics under discussion was the proposed changes to the by-laws of the undergraduate constitution from the Constitution Review Committee.
Several of the proposed articles fell into place easily, either updating the by-laws for the new electronic voting systems or catching up on small changes such as GPA requirements for USG representatives. However, the changes to Article XV Section 15.01 brought some life to the stoic room. The article proposes to offer members of the USG E-board a stipend—drawn straight out of students’ fees.
“Some other universities give their student body president free tuition,” said Marc Starnes, Head of the Constitution Review Committee responsible for submitting the changes, in response to critics of the proposal. And it’s true; colleges such as University of Nebraska, University of Colorado, and Texas Tech all fund their student government officials with stipends up to thousands of dollars. $12,000 is funded for the Texas Tech presidents’ salary, and it is paid entirely out of student fees. Luckily for those students paying the stipends, Texas Tech also is one of the Big 12 Schools celebrating a year of record enrollment—almost 30,000 students signed up for classes in fall 2009 (KOHM-FM). Compare that to the Michigan Tech enrollment figures, also a record year at 7,132 students, and there’s a big difference (Tech Today).
“…Unnecessary”, responds Eric Thomas, a fourth-year STC major. “Students should be pursuing undergraduate student government for the experience and their passion to be able to participate. That money should go to the student organizations.”
Student reactions at the USG meeting were mostly unobservable during the proceedings. USG president, Cara Hanson, briefly chastised the council upon closing the meeting, saying, “Remember you’re here to represent students on-campus and their interests.”
The Undergraduate Student Government Constitution can only be altered by a favorable majority in a vote encompassing two-thirds or more of the undergraduate student population. However, the by-laws can be changed exclusively by the USG. The policy of the USG required the discussion of the by-law proposals to be tabled until the next meeting which will be held on Thursday, Dec. 4 in Ballroom A in the MUB. It is open to all students, who are welcome to voice their opinions on USG proceedings, including these new by-laws, during the required USG open discussion time period. If you would like more information on the proceedings or USG policies, contact a student representative or send an email to usg@mtu.edu.
The USG website, www.usg.mtu.edu, is currently unavailable.

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Tara Sotrin

5 Responses to “USG proposes changes to the by-laws”

Marc Starnes says:

December 3, 2009 at 1:52 pm

As the head of the Judicial Committee for USG I would like to clarify a few things that are mis-represented in this article.

The proposed amendment including stipends would NOT come directly from the student fees. USG receives a yearly budget just like every other student organization…it would come out of there. We would never allocate ourselves more money to pay ourselves. Also, with the potential changes to the SAF allocation process, we will no longer be in control over how much we are allocation, so we will have to continue to change our budget.

Also, if people are interested in being there when these amendments are going to be voted on and discussed for the final time, our meeting will be December 9th at 7pm in Ballroom A, not December 4th.

If you have any other questions don’t hesitate to contact any USG representatives, including myself.
Aaron Tillson says:

December 5, 2009 at 10:09 am

Regardless of whose budget the money comes from, it is ultimately coming from the SAF- straight from students’ fees as Tara said. Other organizations have been penalized for apparent stipends to e-board positions. Why should USG have the say in who does and does not get to pay their ranking members?

The only benefit from paying E-board members would be the slight chance that those elected will actually put in the effort needed to effectively run a student government. Then again, the whole ordeal might end up like real politics, and those representing will be swayed by groups who put up funding (or in this case are in favor of the stipends). Sounds like a train headed off the tracks real fast.

And why is the USG website completely down? Why is there not at least a temporary site with links or minutes…? This is one reason I can’t see paying anyone- they can’t even maintain basic organizational functions. Let’s not reward their failures. Attend on the 9th and make yourself heard.
William says:

December 10, 2009 at 3:36 pm

Can we that belong to the USG just do a no confidence vote and dissolve them?

And the site is not down. If it was down you would have a 404 error. They are just hiding everything they have. If you search them and you can find all the minutes and everything that is hosted on the same page.
Michael says:

December 16, 2009 at 10:54 am

Seeing the various people who have held the role of president, and other USG positions over the years, its not surprising they’d be going after something this bluntly selfish. Yes a few schools pay their president of USG, but you comparing us to them without comparing primary majors in the schools, student population, and long term goals of students at the schools is illogical at best and other phrases at worst.

Sure its a hard position, but I’d say easier then head of ASME at Tech, or running the various enterprises, and do these students get paid? And ah, seeing that one name…I wish the students would do better background checks on USG members.
Marcus Gioe says:

June 22, 2010 at 7:39 pm

There is precedent for this sort of stipend at MTU already. When I was USG President (1998-2000) I received a small quarterly stipend. It was not much- a few hundred dollars, I believe, but it did help with the fact that running USG essentially prevented me from holding a job due to time commitments. This stipend existed for all Executive Board members both prior to and following my tenure. We also paid our secretary, a non-student part-time worker.

This is not to say that the stipend is acceptable or not- simply that at least until 2000, provisions for such a stipend already existed. Perhaps an intrepid Lode journalist could dig up the history of payments to USG E-board members for reference purposes, though based on the date of the article it is most likely too late for it to make a difference.