your Student Union Blog

We are very glad that WUTV has been mobilizing its supporters, both past and present, to show campus why it is valuable to every student. This was in response to our budget proposal for WUTV. We encourage you all to come to Treasury and Senate on Tuesday and Wednesday to participate in discussion and help with the approval of the general budget. Our goal is to provide value to every student by giving every student group the chance to put on the programming it wants. Let us know what you think!

The following is our specific response to WUTV regarding some of the things that we did not fund in their budget:

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Thank you for the information about the movies.

I would like to let you know that I understand your concern over not being
funded operating costs, but after looking at your budget again, we are
funding all that you requested minus the movies, vague repairs, and some
equipment for which the need was not clearly made evident to us through your
interview. I would also like to stress the fact that we as execs have no
intentions to “micromanage” WUTV as it would not be in your best interest or
an efficient use of our time. I’m sorry you feel that way about the appeals
account and hope that your experience with it is not such. Additionally, I
would like to remind you that while WUTV operates separately the vast
majority of the time, you are still a Student Union Executive Committee.
While I hope to avoid the SU “politics” as well I hope you understand it is
a part of our constitutional duty to oversee Executive Committees.

That being said, the items we did not initially fund in our proposal for the
general budget were things that during your interview seemed to be luxuries
rather than necessities. If this was somehow misinterpreted, then I
apologize for the misunderstanding but maintain that I cannot make changes
at this point to be fair to other groups. I would like to stress again, that
we do value WUTV as a student run station on campus. I’m also, sorry that I
cannot give you more specifics about what was and was not funded initially,
but it would again be giving special treatment to one group over others if I
were to do that.

I hope this e-mail was able to shed a little bit more light on the subject
for you and look forward to seeing you in Treasury Tuesday.

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Tonight at 7:30 in the Quad, we will have a community gathering to mourn the loss of life and to support our peers at Virginia Tech.

We invite you all to join.

Apparently campaigning wasn’t all the work involved with being a member of the SU Executive. This weekend we had meetings from 9-3PM on Saturday and 9-5PM on Sunday to talk about Executive Committee groups.

An executive committee / group is an entity that past SU Executives have deemed to benefit campus on a large-scale and thus requires a different method of funding. While most groups go through Treasury’s budget committee to get funding, Executive groups (Team 31, KWUR, WUTV, Gargoyle, CPC, Hatchet Yearbook, SHAC, Sports Club Federation etc.) have a more informal funding method. Not say that it’s an easier way to get money, but it definitely does facilitate helping these groups get larger sums because their programming is more expensive (since it is supposed to be targeted at more people).

The group also includes the school councils (Art Sci Council, Engineering Council, Business Schol Council, Art School Council, and Architecture School Council).

We held 30 minute interviews with all the Executive groups and it was very informative. We’re dealing with huge amounts of money (anywhere from 10K to 240K). Last year, about 1/4th of SU’s $2 million budget was allocated to these Executive groups. It’s an important process and we definitely would like your input on this!

E-mail us, call us, stop by and talk to us.

We will most likely submit the entire $2 million budget in about a week. We’ll be presenting it next Tuesday night (not this Tuesday, but next) and Wednesday night at the Treasury and Senate meetings. Remember when we said “probably”? That’s exactly what we mean.

So tomorrow is inauguration. Exciting. 4:30 in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge.

Be there!

And then we get our offices! Woohoo

Even though inauguration is on Monday, April 16th, we’re all busy meeting with people around campus to get us started with our initiatives. It’s awesome to see so many administrators that are student advocates.

On Friday, I got to meet with Barbara Rea who is the coordinator for the Assembly Series. She’s responsible for the fantastic speakers we get on a weekly basis. We talked about changing the Assembly Series time from 11AM on Wednesday (when a ton of people have classes and conflicts) to something around 4 or 5PM on Tuesday or Thursday.

Marius and I also emphasized our desire for nationally recognized speakers on campus. In the past year, SU helped student groups and Assembly Series to the tune of $100,000. In creating our budget this year, we will have a heavy focus on speakers, specifically the time of day and the name recognition of the speaker.

We look forward to bringing you all invigorating speakers at great times next year!

After that fun-tastic meeting, I had the opportunity to meet with Jeff Nelson to help plan things that SU would do for orientation. Freshman are full of great ideas and we would love to have them on board with SU (and SU groups) early on. CS40 does a great job of getting freshman involved ASAP and SU should follow their lead.

Jeff Nelson is also an upcomer in SU. He’s a Senator and involved in tons of facets on campus (WUTV, Orientation, SU, Tour Guide). Look for great things from him.

After this meeting, the Execs got to sit in on a meeting with a bunch of assistant Vice-Chancellors from around campus. It was a meet and greet in the OSA office and we got to chat about our approach to our goals next year, specifically fitness facilities, nationally recognized speakers, and technology (wireless internet, anyone).

These administrators (Dean Carroll, Dean Carnaghi, Dean McLeod, Dean Koff, Dean Coburn) are full-time advocates for us and let us know about the processes and intricacies for doing things around campus (AKA the politics of change). We are excited to be working with these people and can’t wait to have indepth conversations.

That’s all for Friday folks!

Neil

P.S. I also went to a WUnderground meeting at 5PM in the Gregg lobby. They’re the satire paper on campus and write some great stuff. Be sure to keep an eye out for them and write for them if you like what you see.

We’re all hanging out at the weekly Senate meeting which is 9:15PM in the Business School on Wednesdays.

The body talked about a lot of interesting things today. People presented on student performing practice space on campus, Career Center accountability, the drastic changes in the Engineering School, and whether SU will support a sober driver program that shuttles people to and from nightlife hotspots in St. Louis.

The current topic of discussion is the Executive Restructuring and it’s getting heated! Treasury wanted more checks within the Executive regarding how they vote on policy issues. Some members of the Senate believe that the Executive (President, VP, Treasurer, Secretary) should be able to govern itself without a check put on it by the legislative.

Eventually, this will be put up to a vote to the student body (through webSTAC). If you’re interested in SU checks and balances, who has power and who does not, as well as the tensions between the Executive and Legislative, come to our meetings. Tuesday at 9PM in the Business School - Treasury. Wednesday at 9:15PM

Hell, if you have any issues at all - be it from food options on campus to a general skepticism on how we spend your $328, come to our meetings and speak up during open forum.

Take care!

Neil

During the campaign, we all felt that the comments, insight, and recommendations we received from you were fantastic. We got tons of information from students who were not heavily involved with SU or any other public institution on campus, but still played an integral part in our campus community.

Be it regarding wireless internet, nationally recognized speakers, or better fitness facilities, your ideas and specific suggestions helped us solidify our priorities (and matched them to yours!)

This blog, the SU blog, is our way of communicating with you throughout the course of the year. Don’t hesitate to e-mail us, call us, or respond to blog entries with any suggestions you have.

We want to constantly update this and we want for you to regularly look at it. We’re going to have tons of information and informal insight. The views here represent our individual views on what is happening on campus and what we as the leaders of Student Union should be doing.

Stay tuned!

Neil Patel - President elect
Brittany Perez - Vice President elect
Marius Johnson - Treasurer elect
Rebecca Forman - Secretary elect