Hanna Xu | Student Life

The most important issue to address is that Student Union privileges cultural groups over other student groups. This is patently false, as a quick examination of Student Union Treasury allocations reveals. LNYF was only given $2,950 for the fall semester, the African Students Association, $1,672, the Korean International Student Society, $1,350, Jewish Student Union was awarded $7,550 , the Muslim Students Association, $6,057, and the Korean Students Association, $5,054. Although as one critic pointed out, many of these numbers are far higher than other groups will see for years, other groups receive far more.

Desire to promote diversity on campus may be a factor here (although if it is, is that so offensive?), but the greater reason is that Student Union provides larger sums for groups that, through events, invite the participation of the greater student body. EnCouncil, for example, was allocated $13,825 for the fall semester, the vast majority of which went not to insular, engineer-specific events but rather to Vertigo: a massive, University-defining party. Lunar New Year Festival filled Edison Theatre. And if groups do spend a lot of their money on themselves, we must keep in mind that they serve a significant section of the Wash. U. community; there are roughly as many Asians as there are engineers. By contrast, how many people participate in or are affected by the Outing Club ($876) or the Belegarth Medieval Combat Society ($416)?

To criticize Lunar New Year Festival’s spending suggests something more than a disagreement with how the money was spent. If such were the case, nearly every group on campus could be lambasted. Some groups receive funding from multiple sources, others spend thousands of dollars on food. Others are allocated thousands of dollars to make money which does not go to covering expenses. I do not take issue with groups that do this, but to focus specifically on Lunar New Year Festival, particularly when attacks are given phrases like “It’s a show by Asians for Asians,” one wonders about the objectivity of its detractors.

Ultimately, though, $5,500 is a paltry amount. Student Union’s total revenues for this year came to $2,484,907.43, and even that is a pittance compared to Wash. U.’s endowment. To take issue with the allocation of .22 percent of SU’s budget is ridiculous. It is more fair to use the financing of Lunar New Year Festival to point out a greater misuse of Treasury funds, but even that alleged misuse—that Student Union favors cultural groups—is imagined. Student Union gives money to student groups based on how many students will be affected by them. EnCouncil and Architecture School Council received $13,825—mainly for Vertigo—and $29,295— mainly for Bauhaus—respectively. Lunar New Year Festival received significantly less for an event that was, proportionately smaller. To attack LNYF or Student Union is unreasonable, and perhaps indicates deeper issues with the presence of cultural groups, rather than any preferences by Student Union.

The need to change the standard arose out of complications from the new SU Speaker Series, which was created to encourage groups to appeal for high-cost speakers at the beginning of the first semester rather than throughout the year.

But after cancellations from Al Gore and Sofia Vergara, the group’s large remaining balance led many members to consider giving student groups whose appeals were rejected last semester another chance to get their events funded.

The vote in favor of lifting the rule, which the group has typically held to over the past several years, was 11-6, with one member abstaining.

As of Wednesday night, SU Treasury had $113,978 left in its account to allocate over the rest of the year.

“There’s a reason these groups chose these speakers in the first place, because they think they are the best speakers for this campus and for their group and I think it makes sense to give them a chance to re-appeal [for] those speakers rather than forcing them to [make new appeals],” sophomore Sean Janda said.

Speaker of the Treasury Julian Nicks, a junior, said he does not think the change will affect the majority of student groups whose appeals have been formerly rejected.

“I think we’ll see a few speakers come back, possibly, but I don’t think it’ll be a huge influx of people re-appealing for speakers. Speakers are a lot of work to get out and just with the short amount of time it’ll be very clear with most agents whether the person is available. So I don’t expect a huge rush,” Nicks said.

Numerous members of SU Treasury expressed concern that the decision may lead groups to continue appealing solely for speakers.

“We would like to encourage groups to think creatively about the programming that they’re bringing to campus; we have the resources to fund awesome things,” said senior Cody Katz, vice president of finance for SU.

“Looking at the appeals from this past year, they’re either speaker focused … or they’re kind of internally group focused. But in addition to that, we have student groups so they can program for the student body, so they can program outside and reach out to the maximum number of students as possible, and along those lines, we want to see events that will attract large groups of students,” he added

Sophomore Treasury members Jake Lichtenfeld and Greg Porter voiced some concerns with the group’s decision.

“Although I value bringing speakers to campus, I personally prefer events that are run by students, I think that a lot of the student body gives more value out of student-run events than 1-hour speakers. But we do want speaker appeals—we want a balance,” Lichtenfeld said.

“I think allowing groups to re-appeal undermines the decisions the body previously made. It opens the door for controversy and puts new events at a disadvantage,” Porter said.

Many student groups leaders voiced personal discontent with how their appeals were dismissed in the process of SU Speaker Series selection, which involved groups speakers being lumped into ‘packages’ that members chose among. Last fall, more than 30 packages for medium-cost speakers were considered before John Legend, Sofia Vergara and Amy Chua were funded.

“SU Speaker Series kind of let us down as far as package selection, I don’t think we should have been dropped so quickly,” senior Sheri Balogun, the media coordinator for the African Students Association, said. “I think you stop looking at events themselves.”

Her group failed in its appeal to bring actor and model Djimon Hounsou to campus, but was approved to bring comedian Gina Yashmere to campus Tuesday night.

“That’s the whole package rationale, just stick together what looks best based on dollar amount and fund that. Clearly a lot of people disapprove of that and I’m sure they’ll be making a lot of changes in the future,” she said.

Other students voiced similar approval with the decision to let groups re-appeal.

“I feel like sometimes they [Treasury] get misguided and all they’re thinking about is money and not necessarily what students want,” freshman Reuben Riggs said. “I’m glad they’re going to reconsider [appeals] instead of just stockpiling money.”

Katz said he hopes to see innovative programming come onto the docket looking into the coming year.

“If any student group or any individual has an idea for an event that would be beneficial to campus and that students will love…they should come and talk to us or they should come and appeal to Treasury, because we have the funds and the resources to be able to fund things like this,” he said.

Nicks said he plans to email group presidents with more information in the next day or so.

A strong slate of speakers can excite the student body in ways that few other events can: For those who attended, none can forget when, in 2008, Karl Rove lost his cool and started yelling at a student who challenged him on his policies during the Bush administration. The problem is that there just haven’t been enough big speakers in the past couple of years that have had an effect on the campus climate in the way that Gore would have had.

Students at other schools can boast of how the Dalai Lama or Sandra Day O’Connor or Bill Nye the Science Guy dropped by to have a chat. And this is not to say that there’s been a complete dearth of speakers on campus—we’ve greatly enjoyed the likes of Jimmy Wales, Harry Shum, and Soledad O’Brien and others, and we eagerly wait for John Legend with great anticipation (if he doesn’t cancel on us first). But how sad is it that the (non-)speaker that has most agitated campus recently has been Bristol Palin?

Student Union should take another look at their big speakers appeal process—a process they revamped not too long ago to encourage exactly the type of speakers that have been cancelling—and institute some changes.

First, maybe it’s time to return to the first-come, first-serve system for awarding allocations. Undoubtedly, there was unfairness in that process—as there would be with any allocation process—but there was less uncertainty as well. Under the current allocation procedures, student groups are pressured to prepare speakers that might not come for another six or seven months. Meanwhile, during the allocation process, a student group’s opportunity to bring a speaker is intricately tied to the appeals of an unrelated student groups’.

Under the first-come, first-serve system, a group is incentivized to appeal for speakers early, but should a speaker cancel, there’s more flexibility within the system to deal with abrupt changes. And perhaps the best validation for the return of the old system is the lack of cancellations and the quality of speakers.

The current process has now left over $120,000 that could have been allocated to student groups. While student groups this semester will leap at the chance to get their fair share of the $120,000, there’s now the sense that appeals for miscellaneous expenses are now being thrown together in a hurried manner just because Daddy SU has some spare change in his pocket. And it’s just too late in the year to appeal for another costly speaker, yet other groups were denied their speaker appeals (as well as other costs, which admittedly come out of other funds).

As it stands, the current way of allocating speaker money, and then having cancellations, corrupts the student activities fund and is a waste of time and money that will take years to spend.

• To use organic, locally produced milk and make all-natural delicious butter using antiquated procedures
• To serve as an interactive and engaging learning experience which will help to delve interested students into the art of food preparation
• To help raise awareness of organic living
• To provide a relaxed, social forum

Courtesy of WUChurn

In the coming semester, students will be able to take a break from churning out papers to churn out something quite different: butter.

On Tuesday, Student Union Treasury recognized the Washington University in St. Louis Butter Churning Society (WUChurn) as a Category II student group.

WUChurn plans to make butter on campus and contribute its product to other student groups.

WUChurn members hope that the recognition means that SU will pay for the group to buy a butter churn and cream next semester, though the group is going to start this semester and already has 53 members on its Facebook page.

“Churning butter is active. We think it’s cool. It is time consuming, but not all that much, it is a break here at Wash. U from rigorous academics, and it is fun,” sophomore co-founder Zach Kaufman said.

Kaufman started the club along with his roommates Sean Wang and Jeremy Winer.

“We thought it’d be an original idea that’d be a lot of fun,” Wang said.

Kaufman himself churned butter on a field trip in elementary school, and the experience stayed with him.

“It’s a really simple process and it’s all manual labor. It’s gratifying to make your own food and know where it came from and what went into it. There’s a lot of physical labor and effort involved. We just thought it’d be cool to connect with antique procedures,” he said.

WUChurn will be buying an antique wooden churn and jars so that multiple people can churn butter at once.

When cream or milk is churned, the fat separates from the liquid. The solid fat eventually clumps together and the liquid remains form buttermilk.

The group already has plans to collaborate with other student groups by holding a butter-sculpting contest, contributing to farmer’s markets with the Burning Kumquat, hosting bread and butter nights to go along with milk and cookie nights and working with student groups that bake.

In the long term, it hopes to work with Bon Appétit to provide butter to the student body at large.

We think it is a great thing that so many student groups are involved in bringing speakers to campus, and that Student Union is open to the idea of bringing important thinkers, writers, artists and politicians to offer their experiences to us.

But at the same time, there are no appeals for anything other than speakers. Treasury has done all it could so far (and spent quite a bit of money in the process), but we believe that something more could be offered.

This university has a few traditions, the Nerf-gun fight in the engineering school, Bauhaus, Vertigo, W.I.L.D., etc. These are all great events that make Wash. U. a much more enjoyable place to live (on top of the great amenities we are offered).

Outside of those events, there aren’t many traditions at this school. ResLife tries to manufacture them on occasion, with the ResCollege Olympics and ResCollege dinners, but those don’t really have any push to them, no sense that you are missing out if you don’t attend.

We believe that this school needs more traditions, and it is up to the student body to start them. It isn’t easy to make a tradition, an event that every student goes to just because it is something that every student does, but W.I.L.D. didn’t miraculously appear. Architecture students didn’t randomly decide to pitch tents during Halloween, Engineers didn’t create a light-up floor in Lopata for their health. Someone, or a group of someones, had the drive and vision to make these events what they are today.

Speakers are wonderful, and we are glad that so many big names are going to be coming to campus, but listening to people talk isn’t all there is to being a college student. Students should appeal for funds for all sorts of reasons, not just for speakers, to create the traditions that other schools have.

It will obviously take a lot of work. You can’t go in to a Treasury appeal without an exact idea of what the event will be, what it will cost, how it will go down, etc. But if you truly want to make an event happen, it is definitely possible.

And once those appeals start, Treasury should consider approving them. We understand that many of the students on Treasury have an aversion to spending money, especially for new events, but the only way to try something different is to take a chance. Every year Treasury has a large amount of carryforward funds, money that they didn’t spend the year before.

If our Student Activities Fee isn’t being spent solely on speakers and groups, we could try to start events that students will remember when they leave. We can try to start new traditions that will continue long after we have moved on.

It is something the entire student body would need to work on doing. But we believe there is no reason the next Vertigo, or the next W.I.L.D., the next Wash. U. tradition, isn’t out there, waiting to be created. All you need to do is appeal.

This is the first time in almost two years that SU has voted against a University proposal, SU officers estimated.

The proposed policy change would have forced students to get written permission from their instructors to record, film or photograph lectures.

In addition, it would have protected the “reasonable expectation of privacy” of both students and faculty.

The proposed policy was not a response to anything happening at the University, but to a national trend of colleges reinforcing their faculty’s privacy and intellectual property rights, Director of Judicial Programs Tamara King said.

Most SU senators supported the intent of the policy, but many objected to its phrasing, which they considered overly vague and ultimately dangerous to students.

“I think this policy without a complementary one that applies to the rest of the faculty and staff at the University does leave students in a little more vulnerable position than this opportunity presents itself in,” junior J.R. Davis, an SU senator said.

For instance, senators argued that one could expect privacy at a friend’s house party, but unfavorable pictures of people taken there could fall under the policy’s jurisdiction, landing whoever took the photos with excessively severe consequences.

While King said that each situation is considered individually, SU members worried that the proposal’s ambiguity could lead to numerous problems later.

“It’s broad enough and vague enough that it would incorporate…really, what this policy is not to address,” junior Willy Chotzen-Freund said.

SU Senate unanimously voted to amend the proposed policy to give professors the choice of whether to ban recording in their classrooms. Minutes later though, the group rejected the amended proposal to give Judicial Programs the chance to rework the policy around its suggestions and return with a revised draft sometime in the future.

SU was the first body to see the policy proposal. It was slated to go before Faculty Senate on Thursday, and the Graduate Professional Council the first week in October.

SU Senate’s final vote on the policy was 6-12-1.

In order for Suiter to properly assess the technology needs of each student group, he must hear from those groups directly. For this reason, we would like to see short, organized appointments with an executive from each student group early in his tenure. These meetings could function similarly to an advising appointment to assess the group’s current situation and how it can be improved. These meetings will allow a group with specific concerns to receive tailored guidance and allow clubs without a serious online presence to learn more about how to reach more students with information about their activities.

While groups that do not devote time to websites may find these meetings inconvenient, they should consider the positive impact that an improved Internet presence could have on the recruitment of new members. For a member of the class of 2015 who is interested in a particular part of campus life, a Google search may be the first place he or she goes for relevant clubs or student-run events. Groups without a website are likely to be ignored, and those with unprofessional or confusing websites may be dismissed. Suiter, whose expertise will be devoted to SU clubs, may surprise reluctant group leaders with the improvements he can offer.

While improved online resources for individual groups will be helpful, their websites are not the only ones in need of help. The current SU website, while attractive, is nearly impossible to navigate. The site’s home page has a jumble of banners, tabbed options and tweets with SU’s latest news. With a new technology coordinator, we hope to see the site become a more user-friendly resource for student groups who depend on SU for funds and room reservations. We hope that improvements would focus largely on the site’s functionality, not its image. Groups who depend on SU should be able to locate these resources easily.

We hope these simple suggestions will allow SU’s newest resource to become an extremely practical one. Not only will Suiter be able to assist student groups, but he will allow SU to improve constituent service without depending on the University’s available technology support. Suiter will provide internal SU improvement through its website, as well as amplify the presence of countess student groups. With these suggestions, the editorial board hopes that Suiter’s assistance will mean a more advantageous, efficient use of resources to allow both SU and its student groups to reach those students they have not before.

Click on a segment of the 2011 to 2012 Student Union Budget to learn more about how the budget is allocated.

The proposed Student Union budget for 2011-2012 will be presented to Senate and Treasury on Wednesday for a vote. The joint SU session will be held in Simon Hall at 9 p.m. and will be open to all students.

The budget is taken from the Student Activity Fee, an undergraduate fee equal to 1 percent of tuition. The proposed budget amounts to $2,484,907, compared to $2,375,820 for 2010-2011. The change is due to the tuition increase announced earlier this year and assumes an undergraduate population of 6,050—which doesn’t include students who go abroad.

Junior Cody Katz, vice president of finance, compiled the budget after meeting with student group leaders and administrators to determine how to allocate funds.

While the new budget closely follows last year’s, there are a number of notable changes.

Potential elimination of Athletic Complex funding

The current proposed budget does not include funding for the Athletic Complex. Last year, SU paid $25,000 for students to use the AC for free. If SU does not pay for the AC next year, students will likely have to pay $45 to use the cardio room. The weight room and other facilities will still be available to students free of charge.

According to Katz, SU may choose to allocate money for the AC over the summer, using unused funds from last year. Katz will be working to gather student input before making this final decision.

Large Speaker Appeal Fund

To encourage SU Treasury to fund one major speaker for the coming year, Katz has allotted $115,000 in a separate, large speaker appeal account. While Katz envisions this funding as going toward one speaker, Treasury will be able to put this toward multiple speakers or return the money to the general appeals account if it wishes to spend the money otherwise.

This fund is intended to encourage Treasury representatives to fund one major speaker. Treasury denied a request of over $100,000 to finance a talk given by Bill Maher.

Class Councils

Katz’s version of the budget allocates $50,000 to the senior class council, up from $37,000 this year. Because the senior class council’s budget was cut down from $50,000 two years ago, every senior class council has appealed for executive funds to help pay for Senior Week and the Senior Class Trip. These events usually add up to about $50,000, and Katz hopes the extra funding will eliminate the additional appeals process.

The proposed budget would also cut $5,000 from the Joint Class Council Programming fund. Katz hopes this will encourage class councils to use the executive appeals account for class-specific programming and not just joint programming.

Social Programming Board: Co-programming

This new appeals account will provide $15,000 for student groups to work with other programming committees to plan new events and campus traditions without cutting into other limited social programming funds.

Operating Budget: Salaries

Under the proposed budget, the allocation for SU salaries will rise by $91,000, accounting for around 13 percent of the group’s overall budget. Much of this increase will go toward paying a newly hired technology coordinator, who will work on repairing and streamlining SU operations and other technology-related contributions.

Matt Mitgang | Student Life

Junior John Harrison York (left) and other members of the UP slate raise their right hands to be sworn in Thursday afternoon in the Danforth University Center.

The new SU executives, senators and Treasury representatives were sworn in for the coming semester.

SU representatives, administrators and faculty watched the swearing in of the recently elected UP slate.

“Student Union is capable of great things. With such a large budget and so many talented and brilliant students, there are truly no limits to what we can achieve,” said junior John Harrison York, who was sworn in as SU president.

According to York, the UP administration will aim to empower students.

“We pledge to move forward in supporting the student body and strengthening your ideas and initiatives. Too many barriers exist for students to translate your ideas into realities. Too often, Student Union is the cause for these limitations and inhibitions. Working to eliminate these barriers and create opportunities for students will be our chief goal and motivation for the coming year,” York said.

Members of the administration reflected on Student Union’s past at the inauguration.

“There have been so many individuals involved this year that have exhibited leadership,” said Jill Carnaghi, assistant vice chancellor for students. “When I think about our mission to build and sustain an undergrad experience of exceptional quality…this fits SU so well.”

Former SU president Morgan DeBaun, a junior, recalled the accomplishments of her administration, including the formation of the Green Events Commission and the Diversity Affairs Council, as well as the creation of an appeals account for individuals.

York said he looks forward to continuing the progress of the past year and to the beginning of his term.

“I am truly humbled to have the opportunity to serve the student body for the next 366 days, as 2012 is a leap year,” York said. “We’re ready. We’re set. So let’s go.”

The week will feature hip hop artists from the Middle East and St. Louis and will take place from April 10 to April 17.

It will be focused on breaking down the misconceptions Americans have about the Middle East and Middle Easterners have about America through the artistic medium of hip-hop.

Universal Beatz, the group running the event, appealed for all of the $18,220.30 remaining in the individual appeals account but was allocated $12,799 by Treasury on Tuesday.

The group will bring Soultana Sawt Nssa, a female Moroccan rapper; Yisrael Moshe Chaim aka Marvin Casey, an Israeli rapper who is originally from St. Louis; and Y-Love and Diwon, Hassidic artists from Brooklyn, to Washington University. The artists will perform and interact with student groups and local St. Louis hip-hop artists.

Universal Beatz is working with more than 20 student groups so that as many people as possible will have the opportunity to exchange ideas with the artists during the week.

“We’re really trying to focus on this idea of building personal relationships,” Universal Beatz President Nicole Lopez said.

Students will have the opportunity to be ambassadors to the artists and spend time with them on and off campus.

The week will include an informal panel about hip-hop, a formal panel featuring artists and professors about the Middle East, a workshop on creative activism, a conference with high school students, volunteering with City Faces, and other programming.

There will also be a rap battle on the Swamp and a performance at the end of the week.

Universal Beatz would have used the funding it did not receive to fund additional artists, including Shadia Mansour, a Palestinian woman at the forefront of the Middle East hip-hop world, and B boy Zilla, a Bahrainian break-dancer.

Week organizers are looking for more money from campus departments and other venues.

Lopez first got the idea for the week when she was studying abroad in Jordan last year.

“I find that hip-hop is a lot more than music, especially in the Jordanian context,” Lopez said. “It’s a medium for people who otherwise wouldn’t have a voice to criticize society or talk about the day-to-day realities they might face.”

This event is the second to be funded through the individual appeals account. The other event sent students to the Rally to Restore Sanity in October.

The money that remains in the individual appeals account is likely to be moved back into the regular appeals account, but it has not yet been moved.

Treasury representatives were hesitant to fund the week in full because they knew that Universal Beatz was looking for other funding sources as well. Some were unsure about paying for items like food for the artists, which would cost just under $1,000.

“We are spending our student activities fee entertaining them (the artists) for eight days,” Treasury Representative Daniel Bernard said of using the entire $18,220.30. “I think it eliminates the extra step we wouldn’t take for anyone else.”

The final amount was based on a budget compiled by Universal Beatz. The group created three separate budgets including an “optimal” week and two other options with fewer artists. Treasury voted to fund the third and cheapest option.

The optimal option was set at $28,783, and the second at $18,899.

“We’re a little concerned about sources of funding because we’ve explored off-campus sources, and while they’ve been enthusiastic about the event, they haven’t necessarily had the type of money we needed to put this event on,” said Sarah Griffin, vice president of Universal Beatz. Some sources did say they would commit money after the group received substantial funding from SU.

Twelve Treasury representatives voted to approve the appeal for $12,799, four voted against, and zero abstained.