Wednesday, April 22, 2009
This is a Student Government? Part Two
In our first part on the FY 2010 ASUN Budget proposed by President Eli Reilly, we just published some numbers taken from the budget. We now present the pretty charts. The source of our figures is the President's proposed FY 2010 budget (link).
First a note on the figures: the figures are derived by adding the base pay (wage) to the associated fringe benefit cost (fringe) to get a total wage figure. The two figures are inseparable so we count them together for the purposes of our analysis. Finally, wage spending accounts for nearly 57 percent of ASUN's total spending.
First up is a simple one: student versus administrative pay.
When looking only at wage figures, administrative faculty, classified staff, and graduate assistants make 58 percent of all the wages in ASUN. In the next fiscal year, nine people will make nearly $6 of every $10 in wages paid.
This next chart provides detail in the student wage category (click on chart for larger version).
The single largest chunk of student wages goes to not executive pay or Senate pay but to student administrative pay (secretaries, accounting clerks, etc.). If you do the math, ASUN Officer pay compared with all other student compensation is only 31 percent (for 55 officers).
The Sagebrush is not included among the wages for students because it is entirely self-supporting and does not receive a (direct) subsidy in the way that the three other publications do.
The last chart shows proportions of officer pay.
In both Charts 2 and 3 above, Senior Executive includes the President, Vice President, Directors of Departments (Clubs and Organizations, Programming, Homecoming), Public Relations Assistant, Attorney General, Chief of Staff, Archivist, and fringe for those positions.
The Senate figure includes the Speaker of the Senate. As far as pay disparity is concerned, 22 officials (or 40 percent of the officers) make 21 percent of the wages for officers.
Draw whatever conclusions you will from these data, but the one point you should take away from this is this: at what point does a student government stop becoming a student government, as far as wages are concerned? Professional vs. student at 58-42 percent seems way messed up to me. 25-75 might be more reasonable.
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I wonder if this information was freely available, would there be a huge outcry? I hope so. The senators should know these numbers by heart.
ReplyDeleteThe numbers are freely available. It just takes a little bit of time and effort to put two and two together. It's that time and effort part that prevents most from learning this stuff--sadly, senators included.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you entirely understand the administrative staff and how they function. Essentially the university will not allow ASUN to exist without what they deem as proper advisement and some form of university oversight. While ASUN likes to pretend that it is a self-sufficient entity, it only exists as long as the university allows it to.
ReplyDeleteI would also like to point out that professional staff are essential resources for student leaders, without a continued professional presence the turnover of government each year would bring with it the mistakes and misunderstandings of previous years. These positions cannot be filled by student staff because they do not have the knowledge or the training to properly administer ASUN.
This portion of the budget is essentially non-negotiable. The senate, nor the executive staff holds jurisdiction over these wages. If you want to combat this problem contact the university itself. Many universities directly pay the salaries of the administrative staff, which our university does not.
So why should their wages include over half the budget?
ReplyDeleteTo the ASUN "adviser" apologist:
ReplyDeleteHow do you explain last session if "without a continued professional presence the turnover of government each year would bring with it the mistakes and misunderstandings of previous years. Either you're saying the professional presence is worthless or doesn't matter one iota. Either way, given the experience of the 76th Session, it hardly serves as glowing praise for the professional leeches ASUN calls its advisers.
I like that, Shanley, "ASUN 'adviser' apologist."
ReplyDeleteFrom some of the stories that we read about the complete failure of the checks and balances set up within ASUN, including the biggest check of all--the ASUN business manager--it would appear that the "professional" staff is anything but.
The business manager of ASUN has one role to play under Board of Regents policy: to refuse to sign off on spending unless and until the students have followed their legal process...first. It would appear that the business manager has no will to put her foot down when the students don't do things properly, legally, constitutionally, etc.
I don't argue that all of the professional staff should be eliminated. Clearly ASUN needs some professional staff to function. What I do argue is that 58 percent of the wage budget seems excessive when the only thing to show for it is poorly trained, poorly guided student leaders.
A student government doesn't need "student development professionals;" it needs people competent in teaching and advising on the nuts and bolts of government. I think this past year has demonstrated quite competently that the "advisers" don't know jack about government, the legislative process, etc.
Eric: You need to understand the inner workings of ASUN before you start criticizing it. At least the creators of this blog have an inside knowledge of how ASUN actually functions and therefore can make intelligible comments. If you are elected to a seat in the senate I think you will find that many of your criticisms have been somewhat misguided in nature. The wages are half of the budget because the University says so not because of some ASUN slight-of-hand. Do you really think that anyone in ASUN would support paying these salaries if they weren't a necessity? Believe me, an extra $500,000 a year could make for some pretty amazing programs and services. If you have a problem, contact the university and ask them to pick up the tab.
ReplyDeleteShanley: I think the last session of the senate perfectly demonstrates the necessity of an Advisor. In case you have forgotten, there was also a complete turnover of advisers, with the exception of Sandy. The advisers were new and the senators were new, creating a situation where no one really had experience with ASUN policies. However, keeping consistent professional staff can alleviate the problem. Five years from now the professional staff will still be here, while no one currently involved with ASUN will be. This is why their positions cannot be filled with temporary student staff; you need to think long-term.
Misguided? Why do most of these blog posts agree with my viewpoints then?
ReplyDeleteI didn't say it was at the fault of the ASUN for the wages, I just implied that they shouldn't be so large. As Lupus pointed out, such salaries are not worthy for incompetent people.
If I was a senator, I would be more then happy to lobby to the University and ask them to cut down on it, seeing as how everything else is taking a cut. Why not their pockets? Sadly, as a regular student, my opinions right now will probably mean nothing to them.
As it stands, the ASUN (senate) is supporting these salaries because I see no attempts at trying to negotiate with the university over them.
I'm biased, but even so, Lupus has done a fantastic job preparing this post. I wish the Sagebrush would pick up this story. The students deserve to know how their taxes (student fees) are being used.
ReplyDeleteTo ASUN Adviser Advocate
ReplyDeleteDo you actually know what you're talking about? The only administrator that has ever asked for additional administrative faculty for ASUN is Sandy. Sandy is not the University Administration.
The University does not require anything from ASUN and ASUN does not exist because of the beneficence of the University. ASUN exists because the Board of Regents have given the students of each institution of NSHE the right to organize a student government.
I think more importantly is that a significant
number of the ASUN alumni I know think that the administrative faculty budget is bloated. The majority of people who actually care enough about ASUN tend to look at this information and are a little concerned.
Finally, the successful operation of ASUN does not require faculty. That is a stupidly narrow way of looking at it. To suggest there is only one way for ASUN to succeed is ignorant.