The recent Student Association award dinner at one of the swankiest restaurants in town, Salvatore's Italian Gardens, is a misappropriation of the mandatory activity fees that every UB student pays. Salvatore's costs about $20 per plate, and SA covered the cost of dinner for everyone who attended. There are 156 clubs listed on the SA Web site, each of which was allowed to bring two people. Award winners could bring more, and I imagine that SA officers were at least entitled to seats of their own. Conservatively, assuming that 15 officers attended and that they presented 10 awards, SA spent at least $7,340 on dinners. Meanwhile, most students did not have the slightest idea that SA was holding this exclusive soiree, much less that their mandatory activity fees were being used to pay for it.
Although holding an award dinner is a laudable endeavor, such extravagance does not serve the students' interests. It instead reveals a maverick, unaccountable student government. Hopefully, SA will be responsible enough to choose a more inclusive venue the next time.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
