I run into student leaders who question whether or not there is ever a need for playing hardball with campus administration. When I first entered student government a mere six months ago I probably would have shared their hesitancy.

That all changed when a bill was handed to the Associated Students of Madison, Madison’s student government, for approximately $181,000 (made up in whole of student segregated fees).

The debacle-turned-quagmire began at the end of the 2008-2009 school year when the Wisconsin State Legislature mandated that $25 million be transferred from “Auxiliary Enterprise” accounts at the state’s institutions to fill financial aid funding gaps . The University Wisconsin System then distributed the cost to the individual schools in the state (see this press release and chart at bottom).

This is where the issue exploded: Madison administration was put in charge of where the money was to come from. The Associated Students of Madison received notice of what they owed with no documentation of how the number was selected or why it was alright to “steal” student dollars. Some language from the Capitol suggests that the legislature didn’t intend for student money to be “swept” in the transfer.

Needless to say, as I’m writing this, I’m still confused by the whole affair (as were many people including the press). It’s perfectly understandable that I have probably confused the majority of people reading this blog; but it’s not so much about the actual issue, rather the way in which our student government went about resolving it that begs to be questioned.

How would you handle this? What if your SGA was given a “bill” and forced to pay it from student dollars which should be used to fund student services? Would you fight back?

Part II will focus on how the issue was handled at Madison.

At our most recent Student Senate meeting, the organization began to discuss where money from the student activities fee (SAF) acquired through a second semester enrollment adjustment should be allocated.  As the Chair of the Inter-Class Council, I am required to report our organizations happenings to the Student Senate, and vice versa, so watching the discussion, obviously I have a strong interest in the conversation for the sake of my organizations livelihood.

Sadly, over the last few years, our budget has been one of the most prominent concerns, especially given the consideration they are functioning and allocating using nearly a million dollar budget.  So with 50,000 to spare in March of a academic year, they’ll have plenty of considerations as to where to disperse funds, right?

Unfortunately, given this prompt, our Student Senate’s first consideration was placing $10 of the SAF back on each students Unicard, effectively paying for 8 loads of laundry, a few coffees, or lunch.  Student activities? I suppose…longevity or precedent?  I won’t miss my ‘coffee fund’ next spring, but I’d venture to guess the 4,000 students still on campus next year just might.

Year after year, I have watched this Senate mismanage. Year after year, I have tried to instill a notion of ‘planning for the future in the present.’  Precedent.

I’m the first to challenge or reinforce motions that challenge inefficient protocol, or processes that are simply outdated, but in situations like this, I find that too often, our SGA may speak of considerations of the future, but act based on the present, citing outside, or uncontrollable factors.

What factors limit your SGA?  Are they citing the problem, or some outside influence? Is that a good enough reason to pursue the concern?

All I’m asking is to leave no stone unturned, and no options barred.  My voice may not be in that room for much longer, but if there’s one thing I’d leave in echoes, you can certain it wouldn’t be ‘settle for free coffee!’

Just a reminder that our first-ever national student government Twitter chat is coming up today at 1 pm Eastern Time (that’s 10 am Pacific, 11 am Mountain, noon Central).

Check out this post for all the details, or just follow @sgachat and #sgachat on Twitter to participate! See you there!

We’re rolling out a new feature of the SGA Blogs — a live Twitter chat about student government issues. Here’s how it works…

Every Wednesday at 1 pm Eastern Time (that’s 10 am on the West Coast), Twitterers interested in student government and student organizing will be able to gather on Twitter to ask questions, make connections, and offer advice.

Tweets will be marked with the hashtag #SGAChat, so that when you do a Twitter search on that phrase, you’ll see everyone’s contributions to the discussion. To join in, you just tweet with the hashtag yourself. I’ll be on as @studentactivism participating in the discussion, and the @sgachat account will be facilitating.

These chats will be a regular thing going forward, and we’ll be polling the SGA Blogs community for topics each week. If there’s something you’d like to discuss, leave your question or topic here.

That’s pretty much it, except for a few bits of advice:

• If you want your #sgachat tweets to be visible in searches, your Twitter account needs to be public.
• If you don’t want to clutter up your friends’ Twitter feeds with your chat tweets, put @sgachat at the start of each tweet, as if it was a reply.
• Feel free to tweet and link to this page to build participation in the chat.

See you on Wednesday!

My name is Lauren and I am a 2^nd year SGA Senator with the Towson University Student Government Association. Over the past two years the issues I’ve primarily worked on have been legislative affairs concerning college students and revising various SGA guiding documents from our constitution to our funding policy in addition to working with student groups. Prior to joining student government I was involved in left-leaning campus politics and worked on the yearbook for three years in various editorial capacities. I’ve also been working with our University civic engagement projects over the last two years in addition to student government.

As I will be graduating in May, most of my posts will be focusing on life after student government and how to use what we’re all learning on our various campuses in our work after graduation as well as the politics and policy of higher education. I intend to study the latter topic in graduate school after I take a year off.

Hello everyone!

My name is Kayla Lubenow and I am a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I joined the Associated Students of Madison, our student government, at the beginning of the year and started attending the Legislative Affairs committee meetings regularly, now serving as the recruitment coordinator. I was also recently elected to the Executive Board of United Council, which is a non-profit, non-partisan student federation that brings 16 Wisconsin campuses together to fight for student’s rights.

 I’m also beginning my campaign for Student Council representative. I’m running on a slate called MPOWER, which stands for Madison People Organizing for Wisconsin Education Rights. What we are aiming to do is to plug students on our campus back into the student movement, work at inclusivity and work at keeping tuition affordable.

I’m hoping to keep you all updated about the progress of the Student Movement at UW Madison and would love to hear everyone’s advice and opinions as well!

A lot has been going on in the last few weeks, and truly it’s been difficult for me to navigate the process to put things into words. My last year as Chair of the Inter-Class Council is really falling together, but in the process, I have started my own “adjourning” process, as Tuckman would say.  For instance, at the close of my first year of Chair, there was  “discrepancy” in the closing figure of our budget.  A discrepancy that led to several school newspaper articles, a discrepancy provoking several Student Senate conversations, and a discrepancy that forced my signature on an agreement ensuring that the debt would be paid back by the end of the 2012 school year.  Two years later, the current treasurer, Senate and ICC advisor, and myself sat down and balanced our budget in an hour and a half.  Our account closed with $407.20, nearly $15,000 more than had been presented to me at the end of my first year as Chair.  But what’s the take home message here? Well, there’s plenty in the subtext.  Don’t always take what is given to you. Be confident in your abilities. Don’t go out without a fight.  Take your pick.  What I took away was the pride of finally proving that I did things the right way, the first time.

But unfortunately, the second lesson I learned was far more humbling when I stood in front of Senate a few weeks ago.  I looked around the table, and almost no one knew what I was talking about.  There have been 3 new treasurers in the last two years, and only a few of the Senators recognized the damage that had been done.  Ironically, it meant that my Dick Tracy like detective skills were (arguably) wasted uncovering the truth of the matter, but more pertinent to me in my Senior year, I realized for the first time what it’s like to see a legacy, of any kind fade.  Sure this isn’t the first instance, but it is the first time that it has hit home this hard.  I’m graduating in less than 100 days, and I’m already starting to recognize parts of my time in office that were forgotten.  And more so, I’ve become more conscious of the fact that the anecdotes that I once told of my predecessor would soon be the only presence I have on ICC.  I recognize that I am moving on to other things, but while I’m still here it doesn’t stop me from second-guessing the work that I have done, and the progress that I have fostered, or minimally provoked in the organization.  I look through the state of ICC when I first became Chair, and I’m proud of how far it’s come.  I look over my 1, 3 and 5-year plans that my first advisor once asked of me, and find that I accomplished most of the goals that I had, with the exception of some of the more ambitious (unrealistic) endeavors.  But hardly anyone on ICC currently knows that.  It became more and more difficult as time went on, but with the end in sight, it’s scary to realize that when I leave, perhaps so will everything I did.

What I hope to take solace in, ironically, is that the same way I spoke of my predecessor, my successor will of me; and more importantly, that my impact has not been meaningless.   ICC will likely discuss the processes that I brought forth, or look at initiatives that I wrote, or even function using precedent I created.  As I really start to reflect on why I was involved in ICC, I realize that it was never about being recognized for it, and truly, even if what I did no longer bore my name, it would be simply having the opportunity for personal growth, and going through the process of positively impacting something, that would be most important.  Hey, if the shoe fits, wear it!

This is going to be really cool.

Next Saturday, the student government of St. John’s University in Queens will be hosting a day-long University Think Tank for student government leaders. The event is intended to give students from around New York a chance to learn from each other, exchange ideas and questions, and build a new citywide network of activists.

Attendance at the conference is free, and includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There’ll be discussion sessions, workshops, and other events, with plenty of chances for networking and making connections. St. John’s is easily accessible by car or public transportation.

I’ll be giving the keynote speech, and I’ll be around all day. A dozen campuses are already expected to attend — CUNY and private schools, community colleges and universities. There’s still time to RSVP, too: just drop conference coordinator Ish Sanchez a line at uttcoalition@gmail.com by March 25.

It’s SGA election time, and that means conflict. People begin to give themselves a platform to move up in leadership, or simply tear someone down from leadership they don’t like. Student Government is full of conflict, but when it is not productive, as often happens during elections, it’s best to try and head it off. This is the first post in what will be a series during this election season.

The first major case I’ll deal with is one that I’ve often heard on campus, as well as at other Massachusetts schools. Come election time, suddenly all the talk is about corruption. Rumors start about who is corrupt and what their agenda might be. First of all, if you hear these rumors, and know them to be false, stand up and say so. If you don’t know, don’t spread them. If the rumors are true, charges will be brought and the truth will come out one way or the other.

Once you’re the target, however, things get trickier. You can and should outright deny it if it’s true, but you also have to realize that people may not believe you. If any specific charges are you are levied in the campus media, respond to the point and openly. Show you have nothing to hide. If it gets so far that charges are brought against you, stand up and speak on that motion’s behalf. The truth will come to light within these proceedings, assuming there are rules of evidence in place for charging your SGA officials. You speaking on behalf of bringing charges against yourself shows confidence, and the will to move past the accusations. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t defend yourself from the accusations as well, but people will only listen for so long and chances are they have already made up their mind based solely on what they’ve been told.

Assuming someone is successful in bringing formal charges, stay informed. Get the exact nature of the charges against you, who is accusing you, and begin gathering your evidence and correspondence with those involved. This is where saving all records and e-mails will help. When meeting with the person or persons making the accusations, always have witnesses present in order to ensure a fair third party can speak to the events. From there on out, it will be up to whatever body makes the decision in this case. If you have done nothing, you have nothing to fear. If you are in fact corrupt, well, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

My next Elections Conflict post will focus on how to resolve conflicts while campaigning, hopefully without resorting to your SGA’s ruling body on elections.