After threatening to pull all its money from Sub-Board I, Inc. in the latest of a series of organizational clashes, the Student Association has reduced the funds it pays annually towards the student corporation by $70,000 this year by negotiating for a uniform fee during the summer.
Prior to the uniform fee, each full-time UB undergraduate paid $9.42 per semester to Sub-Board through SA, while graduate students paid $6.20 through the Graduate Student Association. The other four student governments paid $2.40 per student. Now, under the uniform fee, both undergraduate and graduate students -- no matter what student government -- pay $7.10, while part-time and professional students pay $3.55.
SA President Anthony Burgio said Wednesday the uniform fee was something SA had wanted for some time. "The uniform fee was something that we wanted to rectify immediately," he said. "Everyone agreed that the fee was too high. Where we expressed a difference in opinion was in the schedule of evening the fee."
According to Burgio, when he proposed the equal fee during the summer, Sub-Board agreed to change the fee, but over the course of three to five years. Sub-Board Treasurer Paul Sciarratta said the five-year plan was proposed "because of the levels of inflation and the changes in the consumer price index."
Burgio said that plan was unacceptable, and SA threatened to pull all its money from Sub-Board and go elsewhere for its accounting. Burgio, however, said he did not consider the pullout a threat.
"A threat is something you make when you don't have to. A threat is something you do to coerce people into doing something you want them to do," he said. "This was a move out of sheer desperation. The room got so hot we had to leave. It was a move out of necessity. It's not a policy we like to use, pulling out, but it's a last resort. It was option B. Option A was being reasonable, and it failed. So here we are, with a uniform fee."
A Forced Decision
With the possibility of a total pullout, Sub-Board regrouped, Sciarratta said. "When Anthony and SA decided to threaten to pull out we had to have an executive board meeting and determine the steps needed to do this," he said.
In the end, according to Sciarratta, Sub-Board -- which is a corporation funded by all the student governments -- concluded losing its biggest client would be a worse loss than instituting an immediate uniform fee. To pass, the vote needed two-thirds approval from Sub-Board's Board of Directors, which has 13 members and includes the e-board and six SA representatives. On June 23, Sub-Board changed its bylaws and the uniform fee went into effect for the current semester.
In Burgio's opinion, the whole ordeal was about fairness. "As an undergraduate it's not right that you would pay more to pick up a copy of Generation, you would pay more to listen to WRUB, you would pay more than someone else to get access to the Anti Rape Task Force," he said.
Sub-Board Vice President Reid Antonacchio agreed the old fee was unfair. Although there are more undergraduates, he said, everyone gets the same service at places like the health center.
"Just the way it was distributed, the tier system put so much of the burden on SA."
Cause and Effect
According to Burgio, the $70,000 SA no longer pays to Sub-Board will go towards immediate SA expenses, building up SA's reserves, and will ensure that the proposal to increase the mandatory activity fee is not above $10. Some of the money will be saved to eventually go towards Sub-Board employees' Cost of Living Adjustment, which SA has stopped paying because it does not have the funds to do so in its current budget, Burgio said.
As for how the loss of $70,000 will affect Sub-Board, Sciarratta insists the quality of services will not decrease and the cost will not go up.
GSA President Xun Liu, however, said he was told by Sub-Board that his organization's accounting fees were being hiked partly due to the impact of the $70,000. Vice President Antonacchio said the "main reason" the accounting fees went up were annual factors, but declined to say whether the $70,000 is having an effect. Sub-Board does accounting for all the student governments, The Spectrum, and the Schussmeisters Ski Club.
Sciarratta added that Sub-Board is also taking in funds from its pharmacy and medical lab to pad its budget.
Optimism Despite Rocky History
This summer was not the first time SA threatened to pull a substantial amount of its money from Sub-Board.
In the spring of 2003, then-SA President George Pape came close to pulling all its funds excluding accounting fees after SA did not gain what he considered sufficient representation in Sub-Board. The move would have put Sub-Board's continued existence in serious doubt. In the past, GSA has also threatened to pull out of Sub-Board.
Yet after years of friction, those involved in this summer's negotiations hope a uniform fee will mean one less source of contention, and therefore smoother relationships between all parties.
"Sub Board might actually be on the right track," Burgio said. "But only if the governments push it there."
GSA President Liu said he hopes the fee change will lead to other changes.
"In the past, SA was paying more and SA got more representation," he said. "Now that everyone is paying the same rate, representation should change accordingly."
