Don’t let the Student Assembly waste your money

Most of the student population has never and will never attend a Student Assembly meeting.

And with good reason. SA meetings are arduous, and no sane person, given the choice, should make a habit of frequenting the Willard Straight Ballroom between the hours of 4:45 to 6:30 on Thursdays. However, in the absence of student vigilance, dangerous policy decisions can slip through the cracks and end up costing students tremendously. While the SA is often lambasted as an inconsequential institution, it holds considerable power over the Student Activity Fee, which is effectively a tax the Student Assembly levies on all Cornell students.

A few weeks ago, the Student Assembly voted to fund the Cornell Athletics and Physical Education Department (CAPE)– a separate, university-run department–using the Student Activities Fee (SAF). This funding amounts to about $7 per student every year. This extension of funding for the next two years was done despite the Department having roughly $110,000 in surplus Student Activities Fee funding from the last byline cycle.

It’s a wonder this department receives student funding in the first place. The student activities fee should exist to fund student clubs. University departments are, frankly, the university’s responsibility.  One might argue that students are compensated with the plans’ “discounted” sports tickets. But, in reality, this arrangement is nothing but a flat penny machine. Students put money in, the administration takes a share, and in the end, students get a small portion of their money back, neatly presented in the form of hockey tickets with a student “discount”. Students have accepted this, unaware that the discount is just a portion of their own money given back to them. 

The administration’s cut of SAF money goes towards expenses, such as advertisements for Cornell Athletic events– in other words, propping up the bureaucratic machine that then seeks to make even more money off students. Despite the persistent advocacy of dedicated SA representatives against this ludicrous arrangement, the CAPE department seems to lack any scruples about thoughtlessly spending student money.

The justification for this appropriation given by the CAPE department bureaucrats was unconvincing and insufficient. The department had no concrete spending plans in mind when they requested these funds. It requested them primarily to ensure expanded funding from future assemblies — spending for the sake of spending.

The department’s deceptive presentation also spoke to the level of contempt these bureaucrats hold for students. CAPE department representatives went first to the Appropriations Committee and then to the SA voting body, presenting entirely different plans to the two bodies. In the initial presentation to the Appropriations Committee, as noted by members of the committee during the meeting, the athletics representative laid out a glittering plan to translate the $110,000 rollover money into free gym passes and handouts for students.

But, after receiving approval from the committee, passing the CAPE department’s byline report onto the floor, its representative’s presentation to the voting body took on a different angle: Turns out, there were no actual plans to spend the rollover money.

Some SA members pointed out the glaring problems with the funding scheme. However, enough representatives were swayed, for some reason or another, to side with the University bureaucracy. Representatives– many of whom recently took to Ho Plaza to demand reductions to Cornell’s crushing financial burden, including the abolition of the student activities fee—voted instead to raise spending from the student activities fee. The failure of the Assembly to act on this bureaucratic gluttony raises alarming questions about the capability of representatives and the byline funding structure as it currently exists, cloaked in nondisclosure agreements and murky even to most SA members

Those who wish to exploit this opaque process rely on not just the human ignorance of SA members but also the apathy of the student body. SA representatives have a responsibility to be prudent stewards of student money, and students have a powerful voice in keeping us on track. As the SA continues to finalize byline funding reports, I implore students who care about where their money is being spent to contact their respective SA representatives or come to the Thursday SA meetings to demand legislative accountability. 

Everest Yan (‘22) is the College of Arts and Science Representative for the Student Assembly. The views of the author are his own and represent neither the opinions of the Student Assembly nor those of the Review.