SGA fee should go to visible improvements
COMMENTARY
Kip Brown

Tuesday, I voted not to vote for student government this semester.

In my three and a half years at TCU, I have contributed around $210 toward the Student Government Association at TCU, and I continue to ask, along with most of my friends and acquaintances, “What do they even do?” Although I might very well be wrong, I have the impression that SGA serves more as a resume booster and a way to make the prototypical, popular “leadership”-minded people feel important.

As the Sniff recently put it, it allows certain students to “play adult.” Inevitably, this year’s candidates will be elected on the basis of who has the coolest or more prominent sign, and the vast majority of people on campus will remain rationally ignorant of SGA’s activities.

From what I have seen here and from other college newspapers, SGA represents the real-world political problem of bureaucracy that exists mostly for the sake of bureaucracy. The truth is, none of us really know what SGA does, and not many of us can even think of anything practical or useful that SGA could do considering the sovereignty of trustees in the university decision-making process.

While it is true that SGA has put together programs that helped to adapt students to college life, developed a volunteer day and given money to various student groups, the fact remains that these programs must ultimately be approved by the powers-that-be in the university.

Moreover, I do not think it is unreasonable to believe that these programs would exist even without an expensive student-run bureaucracy because the parents of potential students, donors and trustees find these programs desirable. And while many argue it is good that certain students are getting valuable leadership experience, is it really worth $260,000 a year?

While I really have no say in how this mandatory fund is used (the fee was in place even before I got here), I still choose to reserve the right to ask whether or not there are more useful ways to spent the SGA fee. Perhaps the funds could be used to help pay workers at TCU a living wage.

Unlike SGA, we see the practical results of the work of campus employees at TCU. One could argue that the improved living conditions and increased morale of workers at TCU could very well outweigh the benefits of any program or proposition that a student-led bureaucracy could propose.

Perhaps it is just a liberal speaking here, but I do not think student government could ever come up with anything as beneficial to humanity and socially just as paying the workers at TCU a living wage. While diverting the funds might not be able to solve the entire living wage issue, the current approximated $260,000 collected by SGA could certainly be a step in the right direction.

Kip Brown is a senior religion major from Enid, Okla.