USUSA budget adjusts stipends
With the release the 2015 USUSA Elections Packet in December, it was revealed that the student body president’s compensation was increased by $8,000.
On Feb. 18, the executive council passed a resolution “to secure all USUSA Scholarship Funds.” The resolution, ECR 2014-01, was debated several days earlier, and many council members expressed concerns about conflict of interest — the funds they were allocating would affect their own scholarships.
Steven Mortenson, then business senator, said in the meeting that he “(had) a problem with the conflict of interest.” He felt that the people who would receive the scholarship the next year shouldn’t make the decision.
“The student government didn’t feel right giving themselves a raise, but they did feel right (about the) administration doing it,” said Student Body President Douglas Fiefia.
Ultimately, the council agreed with Mortenson and the bill passed without the addition of increased compensation.
However, there was a compensation increase this year.
Beginning this year the student body president’s annual stipend and scholarship total is $17,000. Last year it was $9,000— a 89 percent increase. The elected members of the executive council’s compensation went from $6,600 in 2014 to $8,400 this year— a 27 percent increase.
None of this could be accounted for in the executive council’s meeting minutes; ECR 2014-01 specified that the council’s budget would not increase.
ECR 2014-01 was not law and did not immediately go into effect; it was a suggestion given to President Stan Albrecht who then made adjustments and referred it to the USU Board of Trustees. Two weeks after the initial meeting the board of trustees voted unanimously to increase Tier II Tuition and the council’s scholarships. This was done contrary to what the council recommended.
USU’s student body president is a voting member of the board of trustees. Fiefia said the compensation increase, “was President Albrecht’s decision. … (The Board of Trustees) voted to accept President Albrecht’s Tier II tuition budget.”
The Tier II tuition budget included enough funds to increase compensation by 31 percent, which would bring the executive council’s budget from $67,800 to $88,600. The Utah Statesman and The Spirit Squad were also given more funding through increase. You can read more about the budget and binary options trading in this website top10binary.net
After the board of trustees unanimously approved the Tier II tuition budget, the executive council’s funds were assigned to Vice President for Student Services James Morales for allocation.
“The increase in any given year is under my responsibility,” Morales said. “I get to decide, in the end, what the compensation is for these officers. I do it in consultation with the director of student involvement and leadership, Linda Zimmerman. That’s my responsibility.”
Morales said when allocating the funds he took into account the kind of work each officer did. He said the pay gap between the student body president and the executive council members was, “to account for the difference in the duties that they have.”
“I would say (Fiefia) is under-compensated,” he said.
Morales also took into account elected officials at other universities. Compared to the student body presidents at the other universities in the Utah System of Higher Education, Fiefia receives the second-largest compensation. The University of Utah Student Body President Justin Spangler earns $18,600 annually, $1,600 more than Fiefia. Proportionally to tuition, Spangler’s compensation covers 118 percent of his tuition and fees, while Fiefia’s compensation covers 293 percent of the USU tuition and fees.
“I would hope, honestly, that (the compensation) wouldn’t be the motivating factor for people to run,” Morales said of candidates for this year’s election. “I wish they’d do it for all the right reasons, and that money doesn’t have anything to do with it.”
— brennakelly818@gmail.com