Collegiate Times

This semester, each Virginia Tech student paid $162.50 for the student activity fee as part of his or her fall bill.

Most students recognize this payment as the money that funds clubs and organizations' various events throughout the semester. However, it is initially less obvious what groups will receive the larger portions of this funding until the budgets have been approved and published.

Granted, it is generally a safe assumption that the Virginia Tech Union and the Black Students Alliance will receive the most, because of their expensive productions that in turn bring in revenue. VTU and BSA are responsible for the biggest concerts and performances on campus, have the highest ticket sales, and bring in many attendees from outside the university. They also have well prepared and detailed budgets to submit for review.

The exact amount that VTU, BSA and the other organizations that request money annually receive is decided by a board of 16 undergraduates and graduate students that decides which activities each group lists on its budget students will attend and enjoy the most. While the majority of the student population might remain ignorant of how its activity fee is being spent, this influential group is able to decide how our collective million dollars is spent.

This board's task is certainly daunting, or at the very least time consuming with 74 groups requesting annual funding this semester alone.  Still, it's hard to fathom this small group being representative of 30,000 plus full-time students who pay the fee. Although $162.50 is not the largest fee paid at Tech, it's still money from the students, and thus students should have some way to see how it's spent.

The simplest solution to this would be posting the budgets submitted by the organizations online so that students can view and comment on the activities and events each group has planned. At the very least, this addition would allow the board to have a larger pool of opinions to consider when making its final decisions.

Perhaps the only real concern of this transparency is that students must understand events cannot necessarily be specified. For example, VTU might be trying to secure a big-name band, and publicizing the money will certainly limit its room to negotiate.  Still, there are ways to work around this roadblock that would allow students to voice their opinion on what their money goes to.

The editorial board is comprised of Debra Houchins, Peter Velz and Sara Mitchell