Student Senate leaders claim compensation under new policy
Six Student Senate leaders will receive between $1,500 and $3,000 per semester from a University Endowment Senate account.
By Deepa Sampat
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
Under a new policy Student Senate leaders will now receive an award compensation funded by a University Endowment Senate account. Adam McGonigle, Wichita junior and student body president, said the new policy had passed through the necessary channels and would be implemented this fall. Senate leaders will no longer be granted tuition sponsorships by Student Success funds.
| Executive Awards Compensation | |
|---|---|
| Office | Semester Compensation |
| President | $3,000 |
| Vice President | $3,000 |
| StudEx Chair | $2,000 |
| Legislative Director | $2,000 |
| Graduate Affairs | $2,000 |
| Treasurer | $1,500 |
| Total | $13,500 |
Hourly salary for 15-20 hours of work per week
$8.50
The new policy, proposed by former student body president Hannah Love and former student body vice president Ray Wittlinger, provided compensation to six Student Senate positions. The student body president and vice president will receive $3,000 per semester; Student Executive committee chair, legislative director and graduate affairs representative will receive $2,000 per semester and student body treasurer will receive $1,500 per semester.
McGonigle said he first learned that Student Success would not provide tuition sponsorships last April. The tuition sponsorships provided leaders with in-state tuition. He said that’s when Love and Wittlinger came up with the new proposal.
“It was too late in the year for student senators to consider any sort of compensation increase on their own,” McGonigle said.
He said that because the Senate cycle was already almost finished in April, there was no way to find funds by writing a bill and taking it through Senate committees.
Marlesa Roney, vice provost of Student Success, said Student Success no longer provided tuition sponsorships for two reasons.
“I was only authorized to provide the funding for one year,” Roney said. “Also, students raised questions about whether the administration should be paying student leaders.”
The student senators who will receive the compensation are also paid $8.50 an hour for 15-20 hours of work per week.
“Student Senate leaders are some of the lowest paid student employees on campus,” McGonigle said. “I think it’s unfortunate our compensation doesn’t compare to the amount of responsibilities Student Senate members have.”
The policy will expire after the spring 2009 semester.
“This is a one year bandage fix,” he said. “Ultimately the permanent fix will have to be taken care of by Student Senate.”
Tom Cox, Shawnee graduate student and student rights committee vice-chair, said, after hearing about the new policy, he initially reacted unfavorably toward it. He said that if student senators want a pay raise they should request it, which he said they had not done.
“It seems ironic that they are spending student money on the clock to get paid more money,” Cox said.
Cox said he thought student senators should only be paid by funds from student fees because they represent the students. He said he thought neither Student Success nor Endowment should provide any sort of compensation to Student Senate leaders.
“When they are employed by the administration or an administrative body they are not paid to represent, that creates a conflict of interest,” Cox said.
— Edited By Rustin Dodd
Discussion
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Is all the money coming from Endowment or just part of it?
It would appear that only the 6 students will be getting their pay from the Endowment, which doesn't completely bother me. Shouldn't this retroactively lower student fees? That's something that should have been explored in the article. I think it is more ironic that the Student body President would insist that 8.50 isn't enough for a student senator when they are running to serve the students. I'd much rather have seen Adam Wood and Eric Hyde as our reps for next year. They promised to donate their pay back into the school along with other members of their coalition. That's the kind of selfless leadership that is needed today but we have to settle for people who want to further increase the burden on us all. $8.50 is a decent student wage in Kansas McGonigle! Maybe not for a frat boy but for the average American even, you're not doing brain surgery you're just voting aye or nay and we all know you won't likely do that well. How bout we'll consider a pay raise upon good performance, then you can do one of your scam referendums that doesn't sample even a 1/5th of the school.
Although 8.50 isn't a lot of money per hour, I would hardly call these people the some of the lowest paid on campus. I would bet that they are solidly in the middle with most students, and probably floating toward the top end of undergraduate pay. Add to that all of the perks that they get, like a gold parking pass and box seats at football games, and they come out WAY ahead of most student employees. Yes, they work hard, but so do other students in administrative and departmental offices. Also, most students work because they NEED the money. This isn't the case for the upper echelons of Senate, because having the time to make it to the top of such an organization means that you have to start with the social and financial means to make it there in the first place.
Agreed. I'm a deskie at the dorms and only get $7.50 an hour to sit on my ass and pretend to care about other students. If McGonigle can't live off $8.50 for the same job with a different title, then screw him.
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