Come May 1, barring unforeseen circumstances, current juniors Charles Pierre and Nic Flores will be inaugurated as student body president and executive vice president, respectively. Other executive members, senators and representatives will join their efforts to make this university a better place to attend for all students.
We recognize the power of student government is limited in some capacities. While we applaud the substantial number of white papers receiving consideration — the quiet study spaces, professor feedback and lunch-hour extension come to mind — we also realize that they cannot directly change policy. They cannot force the faculty, administration or board of trustees to take action on a particular issue. Still, it is important that these groups hear student government's voice — after all; students pay too much money to have their voices ignored. Why are students still struggling to get into classes they need? Why does DePauw still lack a 24-hour study space?
Student government, however, does have direct control over one aspect of DePauw — the allocation of the student activity fee. Every student on campus is asked to pay $205, and the allocations board has the power to dole out the money as they see fit. Sometimes, these totals are published. Oftentimes, however, they are not. Furthermore, the individual clubs' budgets remain private.
For example, Union Board has refused to publicly announce how much was spent on the Mike Posner concert, even though we, as students, paid the bill.
This is a disservice to students. To correct this problem, we would like to call on next year's leaders (or even this year's) to publish not only the totals for each organization, but also to publish the organization's submitted budgets on the DePauw Student Government website. This way, students can judge for themselves whether their money is spent wisely and fairly.
We wish Pierre, Flores and the other candidates the best of luck. We hope student government remains assertive. We hope they work with faculty and administrators to find common ground. We hope that if there is a prevalent student concern, they will embrace it as a challenge to address. Continue meeting with others and listening to their ideas for a better campus. You will have a large agenda to tackle next year and we hope you are up for the task.
Write to the editorial board at edboard@thedepauw.com
— Macy Ayers did not contribute to this editorial since she is vice president of academic life for DePauw Student Government.