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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Jean Eddy's decision violates the critical relationship between trustees and the administration
Letters to the Editor | 1/15/08
Posted online at 12:04 AM EST on 1/15/08
To the Editor:
There is an error in your article "Union denounces admin's decision, (Dec. 4 issue)" one which is critical to understanding why senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy has exceeded her authority and contravened the Board of Trustees. (I hesitate to point out any errors for fear that Jean Eddy will decide, in the name of quality and efficiency, to take over the Justice's budget too.)
The Student Activities Fee is not "1 percent of each student's tuition bill"; rather, it is a separate fee over and above tuition which is set at an amount equal to 1 percent of tuition. In effect, tuition plus the SAF equals 101 percent of tuition.
This is a critical distinction most often lost in discussions. It is illustrative of the fact that this fund belongs to the Student Union by authority of the Board of Trustees, not by authority of the administration, and can therefore only be revoked by the trustees.
The SAF is not some budget line item within the control of the Administration; rather, it is a fund that the Trustees have allowed the student body to assess upon itself to facilitate programming and all the other things the Union and its organizations do.
Case in point: In 1999 the student body chose-by constitutional amendment-to increase the amount they pay into the fee to an amount equal to 1 percent of tuition, which is roughly 40 percent higher than the previous level.
As an aside, if students can vote to raise the fee they can also vote to decrease it.
Perhaps they should vote to decrease it by 17 percent-precisely the amount that has now been illegitimately excised by the administration, and tell the administration to look elsewhere for those funds they wish to transfer from the Union's coffers to theirs.
As with all things at a private institution, ultimately the Board of Trustees has the power and responsibility to allow or not allow such actions.
The Trustees could of course decide tomorrow that they no longer wish to entertain the existence of a Student Union or its clubs, and terminate both.
There is an error in your article "Union denounces admin's decision, (Dec. 4 issue)" one which is critical to understanding why senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy has exceeded her authority and contravened the Board of Trustees. (I hesitate to point out any errors for fear that Jean Eddy will decide, in the name of quality and efficiency, to take over the Justice's budget too.)
The Student Activities Fee is not "1 percent of each student's tuition bill"; rather, it is a separate fee over and above tuition which is set at an amount equal to 1 percent of tuition. In effect, tuition plus the SAF equals 101 percent of tuition.
This is a critical distinction most often lost in discussions. It is illustrative of the fact that this fund belongs to the Student Union by authority of the Board of Trustees, not by authority of the administration, and can therefore only be revoked by the trustees.
The SAF is not some budget line item within the control of the Administration; rather, it is a fund that the Trustees have allowed the student body to assess upon itself to facilitate programming and all the other things the Union and its organizations do.
Case in point: In 1999 the student body chose-by constitutional amendment-to increase the amount they pay into the fee to an amount equal to 1 percent of tuition, which is roughly 40 percent higher than the previous level.
As an aside, if students can vote to raise the fee they can also vote to decrease it.
Perhaps they should vote to decrease it by 17 percent-precisely the amount that has now been illegitimately excised by the administration, and tell the administration to look elsewhere for those funds they wish to transfer from the Union's coffers to theirs.
As with all things at a private institution, ultimately the Board of Trustees has the power and responsibility to allow or not allow such actions.
The Trustees could of course decide tomorrow that they no longer wish to entertain the existence of a Student Union or its clubs, and terminate both.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Michael Schakow '01, MA '01
posted 1/15/08 @ 9:21 AM EST
Thanks for publishing my letter, but next time please don't undermine the impact by editing it into a grammatical graveyard. Proper use of capitalization, commas and paragraph structure (read: new sentence does not automatically equal new paragraph) would be a nice start. (Continued…)
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