Mark McShera's comments about Student Government's alleged "wasteful spending" reveal either his desire to misrepresent the facts or the Orange and Blue Party's inability to understand current trends in SG finance.
First off, the claim that SG spends $50,000 on BlackBerrys is utterly fallacious. The smartphones are considered an employee benefit and are deducted from their paychecks. The $45,000 pays for the entire network of phones used by SG and other student organizations. Many are on the third floor of the Reitz Union, but there are also some across campus in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Student Council office, Benton Engineering College Council - you name it.
McShera also argues that SG's budget should be cut in order to give student organizations more money. Perhaps the Orange and Blue Party should do more research. If they had, they would've discovered that student organizations do not spend the money already in their possession. During the 2006 and 2007 fiscal year, organizations left over 20 percent of their budgets untouched. Between student groups and academic organizations, this amounted to $232,000.
Considering the heavy responsibility we place on SG officials to manage a $13 million budget, I think it's reasonable to expect our candidates to either have accurate knowledge of the budget figures or be honest about it - or both.
