The purpose of this letter to the editor is to address the content of an article regarding a Student Government Association University-Wide Committee Meeting that was released in the Wednesday, November 9th edition of The Beacon, and to clear up any misunderstanding surrounding the activity charge proposal from the Council of Student Organizations (CSO) to the Student Government Association (SGA).
As written, the November 9th article states:
“The idea of a CSO activity charge was brought up and eventually tabled during the meeting. If passed it would require a fee from CSO club members to conduct events, but not to be a part of said club.”
This is inaccurate.
CSO submitted a proposal to SGA that recommended changes to the University-wide Finance Policy that would allow student organizations the option of having an activity charge.
There was absolutely no talk about having a required fee in any form.
Simply put, an activity charge would be a voluntary fee that student organizations could adopt for those members who would choose to pay it.
In doing so, organizations would have more financial freedom and extra funds to assist them with their programming and events.
Students would not be required to pay an activity charge in order to join a student organization nor would they have to pay in order to attend an organization’s events.
Again, this is a proposal from CSO to SGA that if implemented would not require students to pay an activity fee to join a student organization or attend an organization’s events.
Student organizations would not be mandated to adopt the activity charge should the proposal be approved by SGA. It would merely be an option for student organizations and it would be up to their discretion as to whether or not to accept it.
This proposal is not geared towards hindering student involvement, nor is it “an asinine ploy to swindle paying students” that was conducted in “extreme secrecy”; it is nothing of the sort.
CSO’s advisor Ayana Wilson and its President Elizabeth Fava have been very forthcoming about this proposal and have been more than willing to answer any and all questions regarding it.
Wilson and Fava even offered to make an appearance at a University-wide committee meeting to clear up any misunderstandings on the issue. Therefore any notion that they were somehow purposefully omitting information is not only baseless but false.
This process has been very open and transparent and if there are any questions about the proposal they should be addressed with either SGA or CSO.
-Donovan Dawson,
Speaker of the Senate
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