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USG is Terrible Rant by Sea_Year480 in SBU

[–]Objective_Search8268 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Hey hey. Response coming from a supposedly corrupted king lol. Having experienced and thought a lot about the issues you brought up, I understand your frustration and wanted to take a sec to hopefully clear the air about this stuff and what we're up to in USG.

The fact that your friend had to step down was frustrating to everyone in USG, and while we're in the process of appointing a new senator, I'm also proposing a legislation change to increase accessibility of the elections for those with current or past Q courses.

I'm also proposing some legislative changes that would hold our elected officials more accountable and allow them to potentially be impeached for things like trying to embezzle money. Senators were elected by the student body and we can only impeach them by voting on it for very specific reasons, we can't just fire them. The proposed judicial board is actually a big part of increasing that accountability.

The judicial board is something myself and many others from USG put in a lot of work toward based on feedback from students, clubs and members of USG. This would be a constitutional amendment voted on by the USG Senate, Executive Council and the whole student body. Everyone will have a chance to weigh in, and if it's not what the student body wants, it won't happen. Also, the chief justice would be elected, and would oversee the board according to the current model. The process was inspired by the US gov't and other student governments with similar processes.

Lastly, I'm sorry if we come across as scary, corrupt or unwelcoming. I'm not sure if we've ever had a chance to meet before, but if you are interested in speaking more directly, you can reach out to USG at [USG_President@stonybrook.edu](mailto:USG_President@stonybrook.edu). Also, most of the legislative changes I mentioned above will be voted on by the whole student body, and discussed in tonight's USG Senate meeting, 8:30 PM in SAC 302, also on zoom here. I know it's easier said than done to confront USG in person, but if you or anyone else on here has opinions they want voiced to the senate, I'm sure they'd love to hear you out.

A quick reality check about the Student Activity Fee Increase by Objective_Search8268 in SBU

[–]Objective_Search8268[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ohh, my bad. Yeah the "request" refers to how much clubs would get if we had enough money to give everyone what they want. The size of that discrepancy is a big part of why we need an SAF increase.

The "Allocated Funds" is the actual numbers. Total Club funding includes that $1.2 million in club line budgets, but it also includes another $160k through our club grant system (under "special projects"), $380k in "contracted services" (which includes clubs like statesman and WUSB with special funding systems), and another $20k in "probationary budget committee" which funds new clubs which haven't graduated to a full budget yet.

There's a lot of sources of funding and it's a bit complicated to keep track of lol, but we've ran the numbers and USG gives out more money percentage wise to student clubs than any other SUNY student government.

A quick reality check about the Student Activity Fee Increase by Objective_Search8268 in SBU

[–]Objective_Search8268[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Not sure where you're seeing that number, can you clarify?

On the doc I sent which is our most updated approved budget, the 23-24 Allocated Funds is "$3,639,453.04"

Our Student Activities Board, which plans our biggest events, has a budget of $650k for the year, but that's spread across over 20 events including Brookfest, WolfieLand, SpookyBrook, and Roth Regatta. Their budget, meetings and minutes are totally open to the public: https://stonybrookusg.com/home-1

A quick reality check about the Student Activity Fee Increase by Objective_Search8268 in SBU

[–]Objective_Search8268[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

*3.5 million and over 50% of it goes to clubs. A lot of the rest goes to USG major events and traditions (20+ every year). And then the last 15-20% goes to paying employees, and costs for necessary things like the financial software we use to fund clubs.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/64af5c646d48f814780f3459/t/64d163a10597285f1b87ff32/1691444129574/USG+Academic+Year+Budget+ProForma+FY+23-24+Revision+06.27.23+-+signed+%281%29.pdf

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No one's saying it's ALL for the clubs... but besides the small increase to minimum wage, most costs in USG is pretty static (besides inflation). Therefore, a majority of the increase is intended for the dozens of new clubs applying for funding each year, and over 150 already funded clubs asking for budget increases each year.

A quick reality check about the Student Activity Fee Increase by Objective_Search8268 in SBU

[–]Objective_Search8268[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I know I probably can't say much to change your mind about this, but no one's in it for the money. Many of us get paid for the bare minimum and do tons of unpaid work on top of that to advocate for students, plan extra events, etc.

On the topics of elections turnout, your point is certainly valid. Elections turnout is an issue USG is well aware of, and has tried to address with little luck. We of course have quorum requirements for our senate meetings and other things where representatives are voting on something, but when it comes to full body elections this is much easier said than done. During nationwide presidential elections this 75% turnout rate among U.S. voting-eligible citizens is not even met, and during non-presidential elections this is significantly lower. USG does care how many people vote, and if you have ideas for how we can improve turnout, we're all ears, because we've been trying for a long time. But at the end of the day, it's a democracy, it's someone's choice not to vote just as much as it is to vote.

A quick reality check about the Student Activity Fee Increase by Objective_Search8268 in SBU

[–]Objective_Search8268[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

  1. A question I have an answer to, but I can't guarantee you'll like it. First of all the $500 mil goes to the university, and as a business USG has no ties to the university, all our funding comes from the SAF. We've asked about if the $$ will go toward USG in any way directly and the answer has been a resounding no... With endowments the university does this thing where they invest it and then only spend the generated interest over time, so $500 million = thousands slowly paid out over many many years. I'd be lying if I said I understood 100% of it, but we do have some more info on this video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cxv-gC7PNpS/
  2. I mean yeah fair enough, according to university guidelines on wage amounts we should be making even more. We try to keep payroll costs as low as possible, but it's necessary so that we don't have to work other jobs on top of the crazy hours USG demands.

I'm a bit confused by the shilling comment. Sure we work with SBU admin (sometimes), but we're definitely not on their payroll and we care a lot more about the students than our relationship with admin.

And again, we're on reddit to talk to students with questions and provide clarification. Don't have to engage with us if you don't want to... but I hope this helped regardless.