I like to get my facts straight. Part of it is five years of Speech and Debate. Another part is being a journalism major, where a fact error can automatically cut your grade in half.
When I first ran to be the senator of Infinity Hall, I took the time to fact check all of my opponent’s ideas and claims by emailing the respective UF departments, asking what they thought of each idea. Needless to say, that sets me up for conflict with people who say not the “truest” things ever, but if such conflict is for the sake of the truth, then it is well worth the effort. Especially when it comes to politicians, you can’t just let anyone say anything.
That brings us to the topic of Bright Futures. I love my Bright Futures funding more than I love my future children (subject to change), so when any Bright Futures news comes my way, I gobble it up like a dehydrated turkey in a sauna in the Sahara.
I like to think that I know my stuff, so when the Student Body president made the announcement in an online letter to the Student Body that “having a Bright Futures textbook stipend for the Summer is a great victory” and that “before, the Bright Futures textbook stipend only covered the Fall and Spring semesters,” that was news to me. Since when does Bright Futures include a textbook stipend in the Summer?
So first, I checked the UF Student Financial Affairs website: “The Summer award amount does not include the $300 college-related expenses stipend.” Huh. The Bright Futures Student Handbook, updated May 1, says “Fall and Spring semesters.” Then I really decided to do my due diligence by looking up the Florida Senate and House bills just to make sure I didn’t leave any stone unturned. Things weren’t really looking good for the fabled Summer Bright Futures textbook stipend.
I dropped by Student Financial Affairs and gave the Florida Department of Education a call. They were both a bit bewildered. The Department of Education said it had been getting calls from confused stakeholders as well.
Given all that I’ve learned here in Student Government, I know that students often don’t have the full story or complete picture since our government can be pretty complicated. That element of plausible unknowingness in addition to the good ole “innocent until proven guilty” led me to hold my tongue and simply wait until Tuesday night’s Senate meeting to question the Student Body president on the matter.
My first question was if it was for this coming Summer, to which he responded affirmatively. My second question was if the accompaniment was done during the recent legislative session, to which he also responded affirmatively. He seemed pretty confident that it existed so at that point I was like “Perhaps he just has that insider Student Body president-Florida Blue Key super secret knowledge” and kind of left it at that. Perhaps I wanted to be wrong so I could enjoy that sweet, sweet Summer textbook stipend.
So I was amused to see the letter to the Student Body was quietly updated with changes such as from “having a Bright Futures textbook stipend for the Summer” to “having a Bright Futures textbook stipend for the Fall and Spring and Summer Bright Futures.”
I was less amused that no one really said anything about it otherwise. I can still see a post on Facebook talking about the Summer textbook stipend with a couple shares on it. If someone is going to realize that they low-key published fake news and then correct it, I would hope they would also give a little elbow nudge to the people who might have been unintentionally misled so they can also correct the record.
Well, a whole newspaper column on this might be a heck of an elbow nudge, but it’s a good way to make sure we’re all on the same page. We good? Good.
Questions, comments or concerns? Email me at zchou@ufl.edu.
Zachariah Chou is a UF political science sophomore and Murphree Area senator. His column focuses on Student Government and comes out Thursday.
