Dear ASM,
There is $1.2 million sitting in the budget you oversee and you want the students to figure out what to do with it. While we commend you for the frugality you have exercised, we must remind students they should not expect to see the money come back to them. We feel that budget, which comes from the segregated fees our tuition produces, should wind up back in our pockets. You have insisted that you will not be writing each of us a check for approximately $40 and are accepting suggestions through today. The Daily Cardinal offers these ideas:
Make SAFEride fully staffed and more efficient. Move resources from SAFEwalk to SAFEride, which is more cost-effective than its counterpart.
Here's another improvement to campus transportation: Try to get another bus line around campus. The 80, 81 and 82 are effective for the hours they run, but anybody in the Lakeshore Dorms would appreciate extended, daytime hours for those routes.
Put the money toward Plan 2008. Ever since the resignation of Paul Barrows, the program has taken a severe blow. Hiring someone who would match his work as Vice Chancellor of Student affairs would go a long way toward making diversity goals realistic.
Put more laptops in the libraries. Because $1.2 million will not buy every student a laptop, make sure the libraries do not run out. Currently, many students are left empty-handed when they request a machine.
Set up a scholarship. With that kind of money, many students could benefit from ASM's generosity given the ever-rising cost of tuition.
These are just a few suggestions that might help students. Take them or leave them, but please, give back to the students, don't give more to yourselves.
