WSA ratifies $71,000 student funded budget
Kayle Dembowski
Western Herald
A $71,000 budget, one associate justice, and four Allocation’s Committee members were approved at the second meeting of the Western Student Association on Sept. 23.
The meeting kicked off with Registered Student Organization’s getting to know each other. The assembly broke off into groups that mirrored the different committees of the WSA, such as University Pride, Public Relations, Sustainability, Diversity Guidance, Political Affairs, and Student Affairs, to learn more about the WSA and the different RSOs.
President Nate Knappen then gave a detailed retelling of last spring’s WSA presidential election. Knappen and Vice President Janine Putnam originally won 60 percent of the student vote. Since Knappen and Putnam unknowingly broke campaign rules, a special election was held, in which Knappen and Putnam received 51 percent of the vote.
However it was said that a majority couldn’t be found on the second election so the vote for president was then decided by the senate of the WSA where Knappen and Putnam lost. Knappen and Putnam then protested that there was a majority vote from the second election and filed a claim that got their case to a public hearing where it was then decided that there was a majority vote in the second election. Therefore Knappen and Putnam became the new President and vice President of the WSA.
Knappen emphasized why it’s important to explain the election and make sure that everyone understands the rules of the WSA and how their elections work. “It’s something that happened last election and…we’re going to do everything we can to prevent it [from happening again],” Knappen said.
After Knappen’s retelling of the spring’s election, a slideshow was presented covering what the WSA did over the summer including choosing new cabinet members, doing a cabinet retreat and moving WSA headquarters into the Student Organization Center.
The WSA then went on to approve a $71,844.24 budget for the 2009-10 school year, which allots money for the different committee members to spend throughout the year.
After the budget was approved the WSA then discussed approving Amanda Jandahl as associate justice.
“I chose her [for associate justice] for her knowledge of WMU, her critical reasoning and her ability to read and understand legal documents.” Knappen said.
Jandahl was approved by a total of 20 votes for, zero against and abstaining.
Next, four Allocation Committee members were appointed by the senate:
•Brandon Bush, a sales and marketing major, was elected 15 votes for, zero against and two abstaining.
“I picked Brandon [for the allocations committee] because he has a lot of experience with RSOs,” said Allocations Committee Chair Devin Brown.
“I want to serve WMU students to the best of my ability and be as unbiased as possible,” Bush said.
•Ashleigh Maddox, a global and international studies major, was approved with a vote of 15 for, zero against, and three abstaining.
“Ashleigh has a great passion for allocations,” Brown said.
•Alex Carlson, a sales and business marketing major, was considered for a position in the Allocations Committee.
Carlson received 10 votes for, seven against, and one abstaining. While Speaker of the House Andrew Ladd initially declared Carlson approved, after consulting WSA policies, it was discovered that an appointment requires a two-thirds majority. Carlson’s position will be voted on again in the next WSA meeting.
•Computer Science major Denmark Gibbs was appointed 17 votes for, zero against, and one abstaining.
“He’s really driven. I trust him to do a good job on allocations,” said Joe Stando, Associate Justice.
WSA’s Operational Budget 2009-10:
08-09 Rollover (Including Summer I SAF): $17,589.63
Summer II 09 SAF: $2,254.61
Fall 09 SAF (projected): $27,000
Spring 10 SAF (projected): $25,000
Total: $71,844.24
• $2,000 will go to the President’s budget
• $1,500 to the Vice President’s budget
• $7,000 to University Pride
• $7,000 to Public Relations
• $5,000 to Campus Sustainability
• $3,500 to Diversity Guidance
• $3,000 to Political Affairs
• $3,000 to Student Affairs
• $500 to Allocations
• $250 to the Judicial Council
• $17,200 to Cabinet Compensation (which includes the WSA President and Vice President’s salaries)
• $12,000 to the Collaboration Fund
• $9,050 to the Operational Fund
(Bethany Bohlen / Western Herald) Western Michigan University students that are involved with the Western Student Association look over the agenda for the meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 23 in the Bernhard Center.
Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=8548
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on Sep 23 2009. Filed under Breaking, Campus, News.
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Why is the Senate voting again on Carlson? He failed to receive the majority needed, he and the Devin Brown (AC Chair) should accept that and Devin Brown should get someone else to nominate instead of trying to force Carlson on the Senate.
The Senate did not believe in majority that Carlson was qualified for the position and that is why he was not approved. Is the cabinet so insecure about allowing the senate to make a decision that might not make the cabinet happy that they force though votes until they get what they want?
All in all I think this is a very thorough, well-written article. However, I have one correction to make. I am not and have never been an Associate Justice. I just wanted to clear that up before I get shanghaied into serving JC office hours or something
—Joe Stando
Why would the senate re-vote if Carlson did not recieve a 2/3 majority? He didn’t get the votes he needed, so a new candidate needs to be found. You shouldn’t try and force the senate to come to another decision. If you re-vote for one person, why not re-vote for them all, just in case the senate changed their minds?
Holy crap they’re paying themselves a ton of money in those salaries! Gotta love PR and Pride getting the most money — keep doing what you do best, WSA: giving out tchotchkes and t-shirts. Make sure you don’t fund the committees that might actually do some real good for WMU students!
First of all…
The cabinet doesn’t appoint AC members. Therefore I would assume they aren’t really that insecure about allowing the senate to make that decision.
Two…
They aren’t paying themselves, the senate has to approve the budget… which they did…. without objection…
and three,
What is a “tchotchkes”…..?
Im w/ you Betty Lou…I want my money back
First…it is only ethical to either re-vote on Mr. Carlson, or to for the Speaker of the SENATE (not “house” as in this article) vote to break the “deadlock” which is well within his pervue. This is because the vote on his appointment is INVALID because it did not follow WSA bylaws.
Second…the Senate voted to approve the budget unanimously. Furthermore, there was a select committee on compensation review last year who suggested and approved the new compensation structure.
Third…”tchotchkes” are small, cheap, trinkets or toys, etc. And while I see your point, these things are the most expensive part of the WSA’s budget. Ask yourself what the political affairs or campus concerns committees would really need to BUY to affect a change on campus. The change they make comes from legislation they sponsor.
So if you don’t have anything good to spend your money on, just blow it on a bunch of shirts, toys, and other wastes of money? This budget has $14 thousand that will basically be spent 100% on BS (not to mention the $17.2 thousand going right into the pockets of the WSA cabinet — please not this is about 3-4 times as much as the compensation in past years. So while tuition goes up and the students have to shell out more, the WSA finds cause to give themselves a raise of 3x; way to go!
The WSA needs to do something to justify not only its budget, but its very existance. $17.2k to their own pockets, $14k for t-shirts, and another $9k for operations? The WSA needs to do something to prove it deserves to exist, or its clear the only responsible thing to do would be refund its SAF allocation and close its doors forever.
@anon. Deadlock? there was no deadlock with Carlson’s vote. 10 For, 7 Against, 1 Abstain, if he needed 2/3 then he would need 12 rounded up (11.88). Devin Brown should accept the vote and find another candidate. Unless the cabinet and the AC Chair only views the Senate as a rubber stamp which will be brought up at this weeks meeting.
In today’s (September 28th) print edition of the Herald, there was a correction to this story which identified me as the Campus Activities Board representative. This is also incorrect; the CAB rep is Chris Rettich. I currently hold no position within the WSA, though I often proxy at the request of senators who cannot attend. I am the Campus Activities Board Miller Movies Coordinator, so I assume that’s where the confusion arose from. Thank you.
—Joe Stando
@ Mary
The WSA cabinet did not raise their own pay. And I do not know where your figure of 3-4 times came from but it is flatly wrong. At the beginning of last year a committee of volunteer senators was formed to decide if the compensation for the cabinet should be raised/lowered/ or gotten rid of all together. After months of discussion and research the committee decided not to raise the cabinet’s pay but instead include the chairpersons to be compensated for their time. Since the the people who are being compensated often do not have enough time to have a paying job or not able to work enough hours at it to make up the difference. And until recently the people being compensated were not aware of the pay.
I think giving these student positions “compensation” in the first place is quite absurd, let alone letting them use our tuition to buy t-shirts and other pointless things. Hey, I have an idea. Let’s just use all of our money to buy a bunch of bronco costumes and prance around campus spreading joy and pride. Forget education, diversity, the well-being, and other important issues. We have the money to waste…
Agreed, the cabinet members often put in extremely long hours and very hard work. Its absurd for “Mary” to even suggest the WSA might need to prove it deserves to exist. If you’re a WMU student, the WSA has taken countless measures to improve your life as a student here on campus. That includes bus service, extended library hours, university wide contact between administrators & deans and students. Like I said before, the “free stuff” that promotes our university and encourages students to come to a venue to SPEAK OUT and have thier voices heard, is commonly the most expensive item in the budget. The purpose of the WSA is to act as the collective voice of all 24,000 students on this campus, and committees like political affairs, diversity guidance, campus concerns, and student affairs affect thier changes not by giving “stuff” away, but by extensive research and legislation that gets taken directly to the administration, and commonly to the president.
And yes, I know it wasn’t a “deadlock,” that’s why I used the quotations in the first place. I’m making the point that in a situation such as this, the speaker is warranted to cast his vote.
Any good the WSA may or may not have done didn’t involve them spending a dime. Name one program that the WSA has put on that has benefited a single person outside of the self-important WSA members who put it on.
The WSA could probably buy a full-page ad in the Herald for months with what they spend on PR, “spirit,” and all the other wastes and drains of our already strapped students’ money, and it would probably get the word out better than any t-shirt or ice scraper would.
As far as the compensation is concerned, if you look at the past 6-7 years, the current compensation is well above the average – about 2-3x that of most of the past decade.
Just listen to the pathetic justifications for both the WSA and its destruction of students’ money. Are you trying to convince the readers that the WSA actually does something worthwhile, or yourself?
Because a plastic whistle inspires me to speak out.
What position do you hold in the WSA?…