Swamp Party promises a lot of things it cannot deliver.
There are two scenarios:
Either they know this and are lying.
Or they don’t know and are not capable of governing effectively.
According to its published platform points, the Swamp Party wants to simultaneously “decrease all fees for graduate assistants” and provide a “7% increase for student organization budgets for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.”
Considering graduate students provide about $4.7 million to the SG budget, the Swamp Party will have to increase the SG student fees quite a bit if they really expect to cut revenues and increase student organization funding.
Everybody pays this fee, called the Activity and Service Fee, which is currently $16.06/credit hour.
Out of the current $18.2 million budget, only about $926,000 went to student organizations and about $460,000 went to academic organizations; the rest was for overhead and SG events.
No matter how you spin those numbers, this is not representative of students’ interests or fiscally responsible.
Student organizations should get more funding; after all, it’s “their” money SG spends, but the money must come from somewhere.
Christina Bonarrigo, author of the SG budget and current Swamp Party Student Body presidential candidate, said during Wednesday’s FLC debate that the Florida governor will invest into UF next year.
That’s how she plans to increase student organization funding.
What she doesn’t realize — nor wants you to know — is that the governor’s plan to give UF $15 million each year for the next five years is to be used for STEM programs and to hire more faculty.
The money is certainly not to be diverted to the SG budget or student organizations.
The governor has already cut UF’s budget in favor of STEM-focused programs to the point that a “shared services model” had to be implemented to share administrative resources between departments and to save money and jobs.
Ultimately:
UF programs were reduced.
Graduate assistant funding decreased.
People still lost their jobs.
Other pipe dreams pandering to various student groups for their votes include building “a collegiate veterans memorial to commemorate all Fallen Gators.”
This would create a “cultural center place in the Reitz Union.”
Another is developing a “Blue Light safety mobile application.”
As well as a “fitness class mobile application.”
And finally, a “mobile application that allows students and guests to pay for meters through their phones.”
I am a veteran.
And I am truly insulted by this insincere attempt to understand what veterans need.
Instead of the memorial, why not partner with the Wounded Warrior Project and other organizations to better reintegrate service members returning from active duty?
I cannot emphasize how hard it is to come back from war.
The exclusion of minorities, obesity, assault, rape, binge drinking and drunk driving also won’t be remedied by a cultural center, expensive mobile applications or a shuttle service.
Here’s what SG should do:
Educate students.
Break cleavages.
Build a community.
Technology is not a shortcut to innovation.
A room at the Reitz Union is no alternative to a program of outreach and education.
Throwing imaginary money around might get the votes of those students not paying attention, but informed students will not fall for cheap tricks.
Good luck getting publishers to agree to make less money to “move textbooks into an e-text version to make textbooks cheaper for students.”
And good luck getting “professors teaching the same course code [to] work together on teaching the same materials so students can study together.”
That will be just as easy as making bars, police and Regional Transit System pay their own overhead costs.
As well as paying for employee salaries for an extra hour so that you can have a “soft closing of bars until 3 a.m.” to try to sober up enough to drive or — hopefully — walk home.
Whether you’re legal or underage, you are all adults.
Act like it.
Oh, and one more thing.
There already is a “technology that allows students to use their laptops, cellphones or tablets as a clicker” in the classroom.
That doesn’t work either.
Victor M. Olivieri is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the department of political science. You can reply via opinions@alligator.org.
