I am writing to urge each of you to vote "yes" on the ballot proposal for a $1 per term increase in the Michigan Student Assembly fee. As the chair of the Budget Priorities Committee I've repeatedly seen the dire need for an MSA fee increase. We are fortunate to benefit from a community, supported largely by student groups, which addresses infinite interests. Many of these groups require funds to function in this role and MSA has traditionally been a primary funding source. However, MSA cannot possibly offer significant support to more than a fraction of needy student groups. This fall, for example, BPC was forced to waitlist funding requests after approximately the first 100 received because we couldn't possibly affect even that many groups.
Consider that there are roughly 600 MSA registered student groups, even by limiting funding to 100 groups each group will only receive $450 on average. These 100 groups requested nearly $200,000 from MSA (this does not include funds requested of other sources). Such minimal funding provides little help for most of the campus events which we all enjoy. Ask any student group who received funding from MSA this fall and they will more than likely tell you that they received far less than they need. Additional funds are clearly needed by BPC to continue to support the interests which make our University community vital.
Karie Morgan
BPC Chair
I'd like to respond to your editorial "Chaos with Computers" (11/13/96).You addressed two problem areas: station assignments at the Angell Hall Computing Site and concerns about the cost of printing. As manager of the Information Technology Division Computing Sites, I'm happy to speak to the Angell Hall system. Kitty Bridges, ITD's director of product development and deployment has in the past, and will continue to speak to ITD's printing service.
However, I would like to mention that we are creating a place for students to set up or add money to their UMCE Self-Funded Accounts on an around-the-clock basis. We expect to have this process in place within the next couple of weeks. Next, I'd like to comment on actions we are taking to improve the Angell station assignment process. As you know, of the 15 ITD Computing Sites, Angell is the largest and most popular. It is the only site where a completely self-serve system does not work. Every year, we have made an effort to devise a process that is fair, easy to understand, enforceable, and affordable to implement. This fall we have combined a self-serve system (station flags) with a first-come-first-served wait-list system after the site fills up. (The white-board at the entrance announces when the wait-list is in effect.)
Please help us to further refine this system, or design a new one! Send suggestions via e-mail to improve.angell @umich.edu. I regret that we may not be able to reply to all messages individually, but we do value our users' creative input in helping us develop a system which will work for them. I'd also like to speak to the role that sites users need to play in helping us maintain a viable system. It is difficult, if not impossible, for our small staff to "police" users bent on circumventing our systems. Students who leave for extended breaks without giving up their stations, who pass their stations on to friends while ignoring others who are waiting, or who roam the site intent on snagging a station even when there is a wait-list - these are problems that are often out of our control. We appeal to all sites users to respect each other and abide by the principles of fair play. On a different note, we'd like to let everyone know that many of our sites do not have wait lines, even during peak use times. It may be helpful for Angell users to explore some of the other options available to them.
Liz Salley
Operations Manager, ITD Campus Computing Sites
I would like to speak on behalf of the fee proposals which you will be voting on in the Michigan Student Assembly election. Voting to increase the MSA fee by $1.50 would set a dangerous precedent. The proposal submitted to MSA was seriously flawed. To begin with, the bulk of the $120,000 raised would go into the coffers of two groups: Project Serve would automatically receive $70,000; Black Volunteer Network would be given $25,000. These amounts are far more than any other student or student-service organization currently receives. For all the work that the Ann Arbor Tenants' Union has accomplished on behalf of students, that organization only receives $20,000 from MSA. Moreover, Project Serve also acts as a University department and has been the recipient of about $100,000 in the past two years from the University provost. It is unclear why Serve still needs the additional funds.
Finally, there is no distribution mechanism for the remaining funds, ostensibly to other student groups for "community service." In essence, an unelected body of students controls the purse-strings for any student group seeking "community service" funds. This is a dangerous move, placing such power in the hands of unelected students who might or might not be representative of the student body. It would also set a precedent, one in which the student body would pay an exorbitant student fee specifically for special interest groups. Instead, students should vote for the $1 increase in the MSA fee and the $1 increase in the school and college government fee. MSA's Budget Priorities Committee has been the main agency through which student groups are funded. BPC consists of elected MSA representatives and students at large. There is a wide variety of backgrounds, schools and viewpoints represented.
Moreover, MSA has entrusted BPC to allocate more money to student groups this year - $90,000 - than at any other time in MSA's history. All indications are that this process has been successful: This semester alone, MSA will fund about 100 student groups a total of $45,000. Unfortunately, these student groups have sought more than $168,000 in funding from MSA. Thus, the proposal to increase the MSA fee by $1 will help address this unmet need. But this alone is not sufficient. Who makes up the difference when MSA cannot fully fund student groups? The school and college governments. Both Rackham Student Government and LSA Student Government, the two largest school and college governments, have felt the pinch as more student groups seek more funding from both bodies. Unfortunately, Rackham Student Government and LSA-SG have less than $15,000 per term, combined, to award to student groups. This amount, however, doesn't come lose to amounts requested from student groups. An additional $1 per student per term will help address the problem, so that more student groups will be awarded more funds.
Furthermore, unlike the more generalized nature of MSA funding, which awards monies to any student organization, the school and college governments are the most appropriate bodies to evaluate the merits of funding proposals from their constituent student groups. Hence, University of Michigan Engineering Council would best know how much to fund engineering societies, Rackham Student Government would likewise know about grad student groups and so on. Please vote to increase the school/ college government fee by $1 and the MSA fee by $1. These are in everyone's best interests. The Project Serve/BVN proposal, as presently worded, is not.
John C. Lopez
BPC Vice Chair
I found it most disturbing and annoying that Barry Rosenberg sent out a mass e-mail soliciting votes in the upcoming Michigan Student Assembly elections. It's bad enough that the candidates have to plaster their faces all over campus, but mass e-mailing most of the student body is taking the campaign way too far. I certainly hope that Barry reconsiders this tactic before using it in the future.
Tamara Sloan
LSA senior