Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The problem with "student government"

BNCC has a lot of students.

Each student pays a per-credit activity fee. I'm not sure what it is -- but, the total dollar amount is pretty big.

"Student Government" controls how that money is spent. Much of it goes to good things, keeping the exercise room open and supporting things like the new student newspaper and intermural sports.

Student clubs also get a pretty decent amount of money -- but it is becoming more and more clear to me that these clubs are not treated equally.

It is also becoming clear to me that the student government doesn't represent the students, that it is run by professional student government types and their domineering adviser... if he doesn't "like" the club, they don't get squat.

I have a funny feeling I'm going to have to have a chat with our administration about this -- and it isn't going to be pretty. Good thing I'm not planning to start or advise any student clubs in the future, as what I have to say will make me pretty unpopular... and I've only been on this committee for a month or so.

1 comment:

Arbitrista said...

Sounds pretty typical. I learned a lot about politics participating in student government at my undergraduate institution - which was dominated by the advisor. We basically staged a coup and re-wrote the constitution to reduce her influence just so we could get the money spread out more. It was crazy.