Hillsdale College Student Federation recently came into some money. A lot of money, in fact. If our front page is correct (and we like to think that it is), our little experiment in self-governance has about $53,000 more than usual to self-govern us with.
How did they acquire this money, you might ask? Most of us are humanities-types over here at your diligently well-reported student newspaper and don’t pretend accounting knowledge — unless we’re writing about accounting, of course.
Natalie seems to have done a good job, though. The gist seems to be that, on an annual basis, Student Fed wasn’t spending its entire discretionary budget, which our student fees fund, and the black ink spilled over a couple years.
For how long? We don’t know. But, if time is money, we can calculate it quickly: $53,000 long.
Now, this doesn’t look to be anyone’s fault, really. Student Fed President David Wilhelmsen said he’s been trying to figure out exactly how much money they had for close to a year and a half. Bureaucracy exists, even at our little liberal arts school. These things happen. How the money got lost isn’t the problem here.
The problem is Student Fed’s fiscal restraint.
According to the first paragraph of its charter, Student Fed exists “to allocate student fees for the purpose of improving campus life.” Currently, campus is about $50,000 less improved than it should be. Why? Because, for whatever reason, Student Fed wouldn’t spend its money, failing its charter and unwittingly piling up enough money to buy a Porsche.
Remember when the Student Fed officers threatened to defund Tower Light? Briefly, lets return to the end of last semester. At that point, the federation knew of about $20,000 they had left in their budget. That is, money that would sit in a bank account somewhere, unused and unspent, while students left campus for the summer.
It all worked out and Tower Light got its money, partially thanks to the more than 80 students who showed up at a Student Fed meeting to lend support to the poetry publication. But the entire situation was strange, distressing, and more than a little absurd, especially in light of the federation’s new cash windfall.
Student Fed is not hurting for money. Therefore, it should spend it. If it doesn’t, it’s only giving away our student fees to Hillsdale students years down the road when another Student Fed stumbles upon a secret bank account.
We don’t blame any one member of the federation for its now-massive discretionary budget. Instead, we blame it on an entirely unnecessary (and possibly illegal, according to its charter) culture of penny-pinching. We request that Student Fed adopt a new culture.
It’s time Student Fed followed its charter and started stimulating our campus culture the good, old-fashioned Keynesian way: with spending, spending, and more spending. We hope that our student representatives will use that $50,000 on something that is, if we may, totally kickass. A beer tent event. A comedian. A renowned author. A concert with a famous band. A parade with huge inflatable Peanuts characters.
Something. Anything.
Show us the money! And don’t stop showing us until you’ve spent it all.