Student fees do not contradict school ideals
James Manion
Issue date: 3/11/10 Section: Opinion
This is in response to the opinions of Jacob Nieuwsma in the article about him in last week's paper, due to our difference of opinion on student fees. However, before I make my arguments, I would like to point out two things: first, the article was hardly fair to Nieuwsma. I encourage you to speak with him and hear a full explanation of his reasoning. Secondly, I hold a great respect for Mr. Nieuwsma. I have sought advice from him on a few occasions and I very much admire his boldness to stand alone these last few meetings - I encourage him to stand alone during Student Federation meetings. However, I hope that I can convince him and the student body that student fees are not 'a long train of abuses,' a 'taxation without representation' or a contradiction to our conservative ideals. Before I give you a couple of reasons in defense of student fees, I will give you a quick outline of what they are.
Every new semester, every one of you (1,300 students) gives to the administration $35 dollars in student fees as part of your tuition bill. If you add all of the student fees together and multiply it by two for both semesters, you'll find that the administration receives about $91,000 from the student body, which it then gives to Student Federation for every fiscal year. The federation allocates nearly 65 percent of that automatically to publications (The Collegian, The Tower Light, the Winona). About 15 percent goes to planners, the senior class and federation salaries. In the end, the federation has about $10,500 leftover to give to clubs, organizations and honoraries. Now that you have a broad understanding of what student fees do, let me present two of the main reasons why these student fees are not a contradiction with our conservative ideals.
First of all, the student body is not a market economy. Why? There aren't really any markets - students aren't buying and selling on our campus. The only booths in the Grewcock Student Union that are really bringing in any dough are doing it for charity. In the market system, if someone has a great business idea (or a club) they are motivated to take risks for profit. How would any club, needing financial support, ever survive when there are people like me who will hardly give a quarter to someone because I want to save it for laundry? If you were given $70 (two semesters of fees), would you spend any more than usual on clubs and organizations? You'd probably save it for the next book you need, right? The market system doesn't work so well for on-campus clubs, organizations, honoraries and publications. However, this still doesn't fully justify student fees, because who says you need to spend money on these things anyway?
Every new semester, every one of you (1,300 students) gives to the administration $35 dollars in student fees as part of your tuition bill. If you add all of the student fees together and multiply it by two for both semesters, you'll find that the administration receives about $91,000 from the student body, which it then gives to Student Federation for every fiscal year. The federation allocates nearly 65 percent of that automatically to publications (The Collegian, The Tower Light, the Winona). About 15 percent goes to planners, the senior class and federation salaries. In the end, the federation has about $10,500 leftover to give to clubs, organizations and honoraries. Now that you have a broad understanding of what student fees do, let me present two of the main reasons why these student fees are not a contradiction with our conservative ideals.
First of all, the student body is not a market economy. Why? There aren't really any markets - students aren't buying and selling on our campus. The only booths in the Grewcock Student Union that are really bringing in any dough are doing it for charity. In the market system, if someone has a great business idea (or a club) they are motivated to take risks for profit. How would any club, needing financial support, ever survive when there are people like me who will hardly give a quarter to someone because I want to save it for laundry? If you were given $70 (two semesters of fees), would you spend any more than usual on clubs and organizations? You'd probably save it for the next book you need, right? The market system doesn't work so well for on-campus clubs, organizations, honoraries and publications. However, this still doesn't fully justify student fees, because who says you need to spend money on these things anyway?
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