Monday’s editorial endorsing the Reitz Union fee is indicative of the shortsightedness of the Alligator’s editorial staff. Yes, supporting the fee so long as graduate assistants are exempted from it seems like a good idea. I’m a teaching assistant, and I, too, find the logic that leads to this enticing because I stand to benefit from it. However, there is nothing that Student Government can do to assure us that this fee will be waived for graduate assistants. The Student Body President — Jordan Johnson now, and whoever his successor may be — is merely one member of the board of trustees and can only propose such a waiver. Moreover, as it stands on the day of an election that puts such an important matter to vote, a waiver of the Reitz Union fee for graduate assistants has not even been officially presented to the trustees. A vote in favor of this fee is a vote based merely on the fleeting hope that UF’s administration and trustees will have the goodness in their hearts to cut some slack to those who work the hardest to keep this university running.
Additionally, everyone fails to mention that this waiver will not include graduate students who are not graduate assistants, teaching assistants or research assistants. These students pay for their entire tuition and fees out of pocket, which causes hardships just as great as those felt by graduate assistants. The same goes for undergraduates, for whom the cost of a UF education will continue to rise. And yet it seems like a good idea to help the administration approve higher fees to rebuild a building that has already been heavily renovated in the last 10 years to apparently no avail, that is primarily a giant food court and Parthenon for SG executives and senators, and that will not be finished in time for those of us currently attending to even use? I think not. In short, there is no good reason to vote yes on this referendum. Before they renew the Reitz, SG, the administration and the trustees need to renew their approach to funding and the reasoning behind the proposed renovations.
