Patriot Media Network
…everywhere I go. Including Senator Dobson’s sparsely-attended (read: unattended by anyone except Yours Truly) office hours in the S.A. office.
The official figures have yet to be determined (appeals have to be considered), so the student body of Our Fair University will have to wait until next Wednesday for the full information. Scuttlebutt, however, abounds. Dobson says that the College Republicans and College Democrats are cruising toward equal awards of about $9,000. It being an election year, the S.A. wanted to show some neutrality. How admirable.
This is ironic, of course, because the CRs pushed heavily for the fee increase last semester and programmed like Bill Gates on meth, but will probably see no increase in their initial allocation. A $9,000 check will constitute a $2,000-or-so raise for the College Democrats from last year. The basic allocation–$150–remains unchanged. According to Vishal (on his Colonialist-hosted sub-blog):
The Student Association Executive received 29,000$ [sic]. It’s the lowest ever for the office in SA history and we couldn’t be happier. I know some orgs got increases and I also know that some orgs didn’t. So, how y’all feeling?
The S.A. legislative budget is a paltry $700, down from $999 last year. With all of these budgets basically stagnant or dropping, where did all of the fee increase money go? Will those of us here at The Patriot have to eat crow for some of our past predictions that the bulk of the increase would flow to larger, more influential groups? Why was the basic allocation amount not changed? Only time will tell, though it seems that the bulk of that money may go into the S.A. co-sponsorship fund–which essentially delays the answers to these vital questions. I’m open to being proven wrong.
More as it comes, folks.
P.S. – Dobson also reports that he plans to have a vote on his bill added to the agenda for Tuesday’s S.A. Senate meeting, before the Senate approves allocations. The meeting–at 9pm in the Grand Ballroom–will be quite the show. I’ll probably live-blog it, if I have absolutely nothing better to do and have some leftover dignity to blow.
P.P.S. – Senator Bindelglass, whom I had the pleasure to meet in person, tells me that the some responses to her survey have come back to the S.A. Duke, Georgetown, Cal Berkeley, UCLA, and Boston are a few of the (fourteen) schools to whom surveys were sent. No word on which ones have thusfar replied.