[Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the January 1998 issue of Broadside but its words still ring true today. Student fees are still increasing and every year Student Government promises to keep them from rising. And, like clockwork, each year tuition grows and fees balloon.]

Every year, tuition and student fees seem to increase astronomically. And every year, our student government officials speak out on the issue. The Student Senate passes resolutions condemning increases in tuition and student fees unless student government gets a share of those increases.

When justifying an increase in the Student Government portion of student fees, Student Senator Scott Starin told the Technician on November 8, 1996, “We have an important place on campus and shouldn't feel guilty about giving money to ourselves.” An attitude such as this can lead to some amazing abuses.

As the Technician reported on April 26, 1996, our student government spent $4,000 of student monies on an extravagant end-of-the-year celebration at the Velvet Cloak Inn. Fifty plaques were given out at a cost of $20 apiece. A live band was hired for $500.

The banquet is not the only example of student government's spendthrift ways. Monies are often doled out to small, narrowly focused special interest groups. One example is the money given out to the Bisexuals, Gays, Lesbians, and Allies (BGLA) during the 1996-1997 academic year. First the group changed its name from the Lesbian and Gay Student Union to BGLA during Fall 1996. BGLA, which had the same mission and the same members as the former LGSU, then applied for start-up funds and additional money for their “Homosexual Awareness Week,” which it received at a total of $700.

One of the members of this organization accidentally exposed the ruse in trying to justify asking for such a large sum of money. The member said that “our posters [for the awareness week] had been torn down in the past.” A “start-up” organization with a past? Hmmm.

In Spring 1997, Student Government gave BGLA $500. The purpose was again to finance an awareness week. In the final tally, students were hit up for $1,200 for BGLA in 1996-97.

When the NC State Student Government funds ideologically oriented groups, those groups tend to be liberal. For example, ever since it came into existence, the College Republicans requests for funding had been denied, even though the group is an officially recognized student group. Only after threatening to sue during the Spring 1996 semester were College Republicans given start-up funds. Their request for partial funding of a speaker was never granted.

Abuses of student fees by student governments are not limited to NC State. According to an article in the January 9, 1997 edition Morning Star of Wilmington, the UNC-Wilmington's Student Government Association (SGA) spent $667.17 of SG money on dinner at a local restaurant and tipped the remaining $392.83 to the servers, one an SGA member herself.

Another example of spend thriftiness on the part of student government occurred at the City University of New York. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, from 1990 to 1991 Student Senate Chairman Jean LaMarre in 1990-91 approved the spending of more than $400,000 in student fees, including limousine rides, hotel stays, a trip to Africa, and a $24,000 annual salary for his twin sister. In the aftermath, CUNY officials voted to suspend the student activity fee and suspend stipends to student government officials.

On March 22, 1996, student leaders at the University of Central Florida were removed from office for a $105,500 spending spree at student expense. Student leaders procured catering, 12 laptop computers, 2,500 plastic cups featuring the names of student politicians and $27,000 in self-promoting advertisements. These clowns even asked for their own Lincoln Towncar, Jeep Cherokee, or Chevrolet Blazer (all denied), and now they face an audit.

The self-promotion activities of student governments are only one facet of wasteful money management. Most of campus money goes to small, single-issue groups. Many campuses use a portion of fees to support public-interest research groups (PIRGs). PIRGs purport to educate student of such issues as endangered wildlife, hunger, homeless, and defense spending. Often non-student staff members manage the money. Some PIRGs lobby state legislatures.

When, because of court rulings and other factors, student governments give money to conservative groups, the projects are equally questionable. For example, at the university of Minnesota, a student committee voted to give $10,000 to a group called Students for Family Values. The primary purpose of the funds was to provide a room where students can listen to Rush Limbaugh.

The court system has also had its say in the student fees system of public universities. In Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia (1995), the Supreme Court ruled that funding to student publication could not be denied because of a religious point of view. However, in that ruling Justice Sandra Day O'Connor speculated that student fees may be subject to a Free Speech Clause challenge by students who object to paying for a group they oppose.

On that basis, a federal judge ruled in a case involving students protesting the allocations of student fees by the student government of the University of Wisconsin that using activity fees to support groups whom the students objected to violated their First Amendment Rights.

It is clear that when “student groups” are given big piles of cash, the results can be disastrous. Why, with tuition increasing, should students also have to pay for student governments?

Besides, the term “student government” is really a misnomer. It is not really a government at all. It has no power to levy taxes, draft laws, declare war, or raise an army. The only power NCSU Student Government has is to dole out money it receives from student forced to support it.

The answer to the problem of student government is not a more even distribution of money to the various campus factions. Logic would dictate that if money were not collected from students to give student government, then that money could not be abused. The university should let students decide for themselves which groups they prefer to finance.

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