This year undergraduate students will be paying a smaller portion of their mandatory student fee to Sub-Board I, a corporation composed of all student governments that provides services to all UB students. The Student Association negotiated this new fee in an effort to equalize the amount undergraduate students and graduate students pay for essential Sub-Board programs like the student medical center. This move rectified a long-standing imbalance in an antiquated system.
As a result of the move, both graduate and undergraduate full-time students pay $7.10 towards Sub-Board - last year, undergraduates paid $9.54 paid and many graduate students paid $6.20. (Other graduate schools paid around $2).
Prior to the fee change, undergraduate students were paying $3 more than graduate students to Sub-Board programs. This was based upon the assumption that more undergraduates than graduates use the services Sub-Board provides. Undoubtedly, this is true. The undergraduate population overwhelmingly trumps the graduate population.
It was unfair, however, to have undergraduate students paying more for the same services - when you walk into the medical center, you get the same service whether you are a graduate or an undergraduate.
Now with a uniform fee, money from both populations is allocated appropriately towards which programs they use most. This levels the field without pulling the necessary funding for important programs.
While the move is a fair one, it is the second year SA has directed funding away from Sub-Board, destabilizing the organization in the process. Sub-Board is a distinct and valuable organization - it provides services that at many other schools are controlled by the university admission. It is in the long-term interest of the entire student body for the SA to maintain its investment in Sub-Board.
Now that this inequity has been rectified, this is the last time SA should pull funding from the organization.
Sub-Board is a non-profit corporation that governs activities, which are not uniquely undergraduate or graduate but benefit both groups. Student medical insurance, the pharmacy, Generation magazine and WRUB are among programs funded through Sub-Board's portion of the student mandatory student fee. Sub-Board is an organization unique to UB and it allows student representatives a say in the way their fees will be spent.
Initially, this issue began as a power struggle. In the Spring 2003 semester, SA demanded full control of Sub-Board's executive board because of the large portion of money it provides. Sub-Board responsibly resisted this push because it would have disenfranchised graduate student government. SA reacted by pulling $215,000 from Sub-Board's entertainment-oriented University Union Activities Board and created SA Entertainment.
SA President Anthony Burgio raised the issue again this summer, arguing for a uniform fee. SA resisted Sub-Board's plan of gradually reducing the fee over three to five years by threatening to pull all SA funding. This was inappropriate. The majority of money Sub-Board receives naturally comes from SA because it has the largest budget. As the SA President, Burgio must work to protect Sub-Board instead of threatening to dismantle it.
Given the pattern of the past few years, it is possible that power struggles between SA and Sub-Board will arise again in the future. In the interest of students, both sides should consider the issue resolved and move towards a supportive relationship with Sub-Board.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
