Our Student Body President, Anthony Reynolds, recently wrote to the Alligator that he "cannot, in good conscience, spend student fee money on expenses that do not go to serving UF students."
While I, and the Students Party, vehemently disagree with President Reynolds's decision to hand over the student voice on the Board of Governors to Rick Scott, I must applaud Reynolds for finally taking a stand against Student Government waste.
I assume in the next few days the Unite Party will announce it is no longer in favor of the $3,000 meal plans for senior SG officials, the cellphone reimbursements for those same officials and their VIP "official business" parking decals. After all, none of those perks go to serving UF students.While they are at it, perhaps they can get rid of the waste in the rest of SG. If our federal government can do with 15 cabinet positions, surely a student government does not need 32 directors for 23 cabinet positions.
As it stands, many SG cabinets and agencies put on events where no more than a handful of students attend, with trays and trays of food leftover for the SG officials to take home, all on students' dime. Not only is this a huge waste of money, it prevents students from benefiting from meaningful programming that other organizations actually do.
To ensure that student money is not being wasted, the Students Party will require each cabinet director to pair up with a student organization to increase turnout and cut costs for events. We will also re-organize executive agencies such as IMAGE, which currently does nothing, to act as a beneficial arm for change to better the student experience at UF.
