Spring Break
Letters to the Editor
Issue date: 2/20/09 Section: Commentary
USG president declines columnist's suggestion
for a USG rainy day fund
Bryan Carroll's piece ("USG 'Rainy Day Fund' could help curb budget cuts' impact," Feb. 18) contained a large number of disturbing errors, some of which may have damaged the reputation of the Undergraduate Student Government. We would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight regarding some of the inaccuracies printed in Carroll's piece, and also speak to other factual errors that have been repeated in this paper throughout the past few years:
- The term "surplus funds" is misleading. It doesn't mean that USG squirreled away money in order to buy BlackBerry phones (which we never ended up buying) or a brand-new Playstation (which, if it were in the office, would give us something better to do than write this letter to the editor). When USG has surplus funds, it means that whatever projects we budgeted for this year didn't cost as much as we thought they would.
Getting a better deal than you budgeted for is a good thing. It's like planning to spend $30 on jeans and finding those same jeans on sale for $20. Do you say "Curses! Now I have $10 left over. How awful!"? No, of course not. Neither does USG. What USG does do is gather all the surplus money at the end of every year and then redistribute it.
This "redistribution" still unfortunately does not include the purchase of executive-style leather couches or BlackBerry phones (that's right, still no BlackBerrys!).
This year we had $51,000 in surplus funds. We redistributed these funds to the following sources: major student activity initiatives, including Take Back the Night, HuskyTHON, Remember Last Night and other Spring Weekend-related efforts; funding board efforts to help fund student organizations (this is particularly important as there has been an unprecedented number of funding requests by student organizations this year); kick-starting USG-SPAN television programming, which will be recording a variety of on-campus lectures, performances and club sports for students to be able to view online.
for a USG rainy day fund
Bryan Carroll's piece ("USG 'Rainy Day Fund' could help curb budget cuts' impact," Feb. 18) contained a large number of disturbing errors, some of which may have damaged the reputation of the Undergraduate Student Government. We would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight regarding some of the inaccuracies printed in Carroll's piece, and also speak to other factual errors that have been repeated in this paper throughout the past few years:
- The term "surplus funds" is misleading. It doesn't mean that USG squirreled away money in order to buy BlackBerry phones (which we never ended up buying) or a brand-new Playstation (which, if it were in the office, would give us something better to do than write this letter to the editor). When USG has surplus funds, it means that whatever projects we budgeted for this year didn't cost as much as we thought they would.
Getting a better deal than you budgeted for is a good thing. It's like planning to spend $30 on jeans and finding those same jeans on sale for $20. Do you say "Curses! Now I have $10 left over. How awful!"? No, of course not. Neither does USG. What USG does do is gather all the surplus money at the end of every year and then redistribute it.
This "redistribution" still unfortunately does not include the purchase of executive-style leather couches or BlackBerry phones (that's right, still no BlackBerrys!).
This year we had $51,000 in surplus funds. We redistributed these funds to the following sources: major student activity initiatives, including Take Back the Night, HuskyTHON, Remember Last Night and other Spring Weekend-related efforts; funding board efforts to help fund student organizations (this is particularly important as there has been an unprecedented number of funding requests by student organizations this year); kick-starting USG-SPAN television programming, which will be recording a variety of on-campus lectures, performances and club sports for students to be able to view online.
Viewing Comments 1 - 8 of 9
Dan
posted 2/20/09 @ 11:26 AM EST
What an appropriate response from the President of USG. So well worded, articulate and professional, not to mention humble.
And I love that USG spent money to buy it's own camera equipment to put it's meetings, club sports and campus lectures online. (Continued…)
John Rimples
posted 2/20/09 @ 12:59 PM EST
Did the president of the student body seriously write that? wow. The attitude, smug remarks were so uncalled for an unprofessional, as well as childish. (Continued…)
Sally Bacardi
posted 2/20/09 @ 3:12 PM EST
I think it's great that the president responded in a light-hearted way while still throwing sass in the face of that misinformed author. We're talking about the Undergraduate STUDENT Government. (Continued…)
LoveinthisClub
posted 2/20/09 @ 4:43 PM EST
This letter deserves our praise. Is it full of attitude? Sure. How would you respond if you were leading an organization where your campus newspaper goes out of its way to misinform students about you and your groups activities? 'USG has a whole LOT of issues', John? How do you know this - Oh, probably because you read that here. (Continued…)
Anon.
posted 2/20/09 @ 11:03 PM EST
Whether or not the information about USG is true, the president of ANY corporation (nonetheless USG, which has such a large presence on campus) should not stoop to the level of petty insults. (Continued…)
Jessica LaPorta
Anon.
posted 2/20/09 @ 11:06 PM EST
I also did not mean to just write corporation, I meant to write group/club/etc. as well
I know...
posted 2/21/09 @ 12:08 PM EST
Zaritheny needs to get off of her high horse. She doesn't just write this way, she acts this way and has alienated just about everyone inside AND outside of USG. (Continued…)
Webby
posted 2/22/09 @ 2:53 PM EST
Zaritheny reminds me of a snake-oil salesman. I wouldn't trust her as far as I can throw her, and I think USG has really, over the past few years, tried to turn itself into a huge, megalomaniac structure. (Continued…)
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