[2152] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: [Mit-talk] Separating threads: Student Committee
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chris Rezek)
Fri Jul 14 23:05:52 2006
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 23:05:16 -0400
To: Chris Rezek <crezek@alum.mit.edu>, mit-talk@mit.edu, ua-scatr@mit.edu,
ua-cocomm@mit.edu, ua-exec@mit.edu
From: Chris Rezek <crezek@alum.mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <6.2.3.4.2.20060712093754.042bc8b8@po10.mit.edu>
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu
Any comments by anyone about the UA spending $30-60k to improve its
ability to influence policy, and more generally get things done at MIT?
What does it take to start a flam^H^H^H^H discussion thread around
here these days? Re-scheduling Rush? Changing the dorm lottery system?
I think hiring staff makes sense and I suppose I will have to take
the silence as unanimous agreement.
Chris
At 09:38 AM 7/12/2006, Chris Rezek wrote:
>Paying elected officials is something I don't think I'd be
>comfortable with. Though I haven't thought about it much, either.
>
>Paying a UA staff person to do office management, paper processing,
>schedule management, etc. would free up time for other things. The
>in-committee publicity chair, and the PR committee as 'free staff',
>have been tried many times and fail to work consistently - there
>aren't always several students willing to do nothing but
>publicize. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. A staff person
>would provide consistency.
>
>But the need for staffing isn't just about postering - that was just
>an example. A consistent and competent full-time assistant could
>improve UA effectiveness across the board. Minutes would be taken
>and posted in a timely manner. The web page would stay
>current. Applications would be processed faster and with fewer errors, etc.
>
>As Anderson no doubt remembers, it was a revolution in 1998-1999 when
>the UA (& the Finance Board) started allowing budgets to include
>food. This was in part because with such a small total budget ($50k)
>food was considered extravagant. With ten times that amount (does
>someone have the exact figure for this year?) perhaps staffing is
>something to consider. That person could help reduce the
>administrative burden of the ASA and Finance Board as well, of
>course, as well as other UA committees. Perhaps the UA could
>share/partner with the GSC to share the funding load and staffing benefits.
>
>Obviously the UA could be better at recruiting and organizing its
>volunteers. But staff could help. An MIT alumni group (the AILG
>www.mitailg.org) I am on the Board of is currently considering hiring
>its first staff person ever to solve a similar
>volunteer-gap-effectiveness issue. That's what sparked my thinking
>about a UA staff person.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Chris
>
>
>
>At 06:59 AM 7/11/2006, Victoria K. Anderson wrote:
> >I don't think paying for students to do things like poster would be a
> >huge deal,
> >as long as they weren't involved as committee chairs or whatnot. I
> believe the
> >GSC pays somebody do to their postering for them, or at least they did 4-5
> >years ago. It's fairly inexpensive (about $10/hour) and would free up the UA
> >folk to do some substantive work.
> >
> >Quoting Jessica H Lowell <jessiehl@MIT.EDU>:
> >
> > > Quoting Jacob Faber <faber@alum.mit.edu>:
> > >
> > >> Chris brings up a great point. There is a lot of work that can (and
> > >> probably should) be paid for, such as postering, running websites,
> > >> administrative work, etc. It is not unusual for student government
> > >> officials to be paid at other universities. I completely understand
> > >> the backlash from student groups who say the UA gets too much money,
> > >> but the level of attack received (I understand your pain Jessica) is
> > >> unnecessary. The fact of the matter is (or at least was a couple
> > >> years ago) that most groups are given much more money than they
> > >> actually end up spending.
> > >
> > >
> > > It is not unusual, or at least not _too_ unusual, at other
> > > universities, for the
> > > student government president to take the year that they are
> president off,
> > > academically speaking, and to receive a salary. However, I suspect
> > > that people
> > > would not want to implement that at MIT. I wouldn't.
> > >
> > > Chris' original point (that it's more useful for UA workers to spend
> > > their time
> > > on policy than on publicity and administrivia) is a valid one,
> but I don't
> > > think his solution is either politically feasible or desirable. One
> > > could call
> > > on the PR committee to do such work, but personally I'd rather see PR
> > > working to
> > > inform the student body on the issues and what the UA is doing about
> > > them, than
> > > postering. Maybe each committee should designate a member to do its
> > > publicity
> > > work, and then the rest wouldn't have to bother. Or maybe the UA
> > > should keep a
> > > list of volunteers for publicity work, and call upon the list
> > when it needs.
> > >
> > > - Jessie
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > MIT-talk mailing list
> > > MIT-talk@mit.edu
> > > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/mit-talk
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >--
> >Victoria K. Anderson
> >218 Whittier St. NW
> >Washington, DC 20012
> >857-998-1987
> >_______________________________________________
> >MIT-talk mailing list
> >MIT-talk@mit.edu
> >http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/mit-talk
>
>
>
>2006.07.10 4:10pm
>
>If policy work takes time (it does) and if the time of students is
>limited (it is) and if some work can be done by staff and not by
>elected officials (it can) then it seems that the overall
>effectiveness of the UA (and the grades of its officials) would be
>improved by greater staff support.
>
>For example, I would rather the nominations committee spend its time
>interviewing students, rather than splashing posters all over
>campus. The former must be done by students. The second can be done
>by paid labor. Another NomComm example - processing and organizing
>applications can be done by staff, while designing the application
>should be done by students.
>
>Chris
>
>2006.07.10 3:25pm
>
>Somewhat on topic - what is the current state of UA staffing/admin support?
>
>The effectiveness of the UA [and student gov't generally] often
>depends on how much its students are willing to put aside their class
>work for the greater good. With strong paid support some of that
>effort can shift away from volunteers. This can be some combination
>of MIT-paid and UA-paid staffing. I know the UA's budget has gone up
>significantly in the last 10 years and I believe its staff support
>has declined, but I admit that I don't know the current state.
>
>Chris
>
>
>
>
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