Congress of the South 40 (CS40) executives receive free housing. What’s next? Complimentary living quarters for Student Union executive board with a 50 percent discount rate for all the senators? This is ludicrous. True, the CS40 execs are only compensated for the amount of a double bedroom in an old building. Paying for an upgrade is not particularly tragic, though.

The yearly rate for an old double is $6,096. That means that an upgrade to an old single would only cost $878. A new single would cost $1,666, and a single in Millbrook would set an exec back $1,324. These prices are ridiculously low compared to what other students are paying; other students normally pay about six times that amount.

The responsibilities of these overly compensated students include promoting and organizing events, divvying up the group’s budget and overseeing various internal committees. This description sounds vaguely reminiscent of Student Union executives, not to mention half of the other student run activity groups on campus. There is no possible way that CS40 officers work harder than any other officer in any other organization on campus. Even if they did, free housing is much too large a compensation. Complimentary housing puts CS40 executives on the level of residential advisers, and it is the RAs, not CS40 officers, who are expected to be “on call” at all times.

Moreover, regardless of the justice in the situation, free housing should not have to be offered in order for a student to run for this position. Wanting to do the job well – whether one is compensated or not – should be the reason for aspiring to be an officer. If a student joins in order to receive this reward, it seems unlikely that he or she will take the job as seriously as possible. On the other hand, if students are joining the organization for personal reasons and vow to take on the responsibility regardless, why is it necessary for free housing to be offered?

There is no justification for these students to receive free housing. They may come back to school earlier than other students, but plenty of students paying for their housing come back to run pre-orientation programs. They may have to endure two weeks of training along with the RAs, but the preparation for Uncle Joe’s is much more extensive, and no compensation is involved.

If free housing is so easy to attain, why are other students paying so much to live in campus housing? CS40 should not receive free housing any more than any other member of the University community should.

Popularity: 1% [?]

 Print This Post

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 27th, 2005 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Forum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.