Wasteful egos

It's probably just as well that the Students' Association voted to adjourn early Wednesday night so members could attend the UH-Texas A&M basketball game.

We should probably consider their action a big favor to all UH students. As long as they weren't meeting, they couldn't spend any of the money they receive from our student fees.

It's hard to tell exactly what SA does -- except meet, argue, depose its own leaders and expel fellow senators who don't bother to show up to listen to the pompous posturing of Senate members.

Oh, one other thing they do -- they spend our student fee money (lots of it) on projects that are only vaguely useful to the student body, like last year when they just had to spend $11,000 on new computers when they didn't even know what software they would need, and then spent weeks arguing over who got the new machines. Many students asked if SA members even knew what they could to do with the computers besides play games.

This lack of direction is likely fueled by the fact that unlike most governing bodies, which must post an agenda in public at least 48 hours before each public meeting, SA can't seem to get its act or agenda together until sometime on the day of its meetings. In response to questions about when the Wednesday agenda would be available, The Daily Cougar was told the agendas are put into each senator's box on the day of the meeting.

Last fall SA initiated a newsgroup on the UH computer system. According to the initial postings by the organization, any member of the UH community with an e-mail account could access the newsgroup and learn more about SA and SA activities. The stated purpose of the newsgroup was to provide the campus with another avenue for interaction with SA and SA members.

For about a month, various senators used the newsgroup to post lengthy diatribes relating to their own personal opinions on various legislation. These quickly digressed into personal complaints and objections to SA actions on the resignation of the SA speaker and the political maneuvering that preceded the appointment of a new speaker. Then, almost mercifully, they quit posting anything, and the newsgroup remains silent to this day.

Perhaps the SA egos will consider posting their agenda on the newsgroup or in The Daily Cougar at least a day or so before they meet. Unless they have something to hide, posting an agenda seems like the American way to do things. Then, if we object to how SA spends our money, we will have an opportunity to know about it ahead of time, and possibly to do something about it.

Wasteful egos

It's probably just as well that the Students' Association voted to adjourn early Wednesday night so members could attend the UH-Texas A&M basketball game.

We should probably consider their action a big favor to all UH students. As long as they weren't meeting, they couldn't spend any of the money they receive from our student fees.

It's hard to tell exactly what SA does -- except meet, argue, depose its own leaders and expel fellow senators who don't bother to show up to listen to the pompous posturing of Senate members.

Oh, one other thing they do -- they spend our student fee money (lots of it) on projects that are only vaguely useful to the student body, like last year when they just had to spend $11,000 on new computers when they didn't even know what software they would need, and then spent weeks arguing over who got the new machines. Many students asked if SA members even knew what they could to do with the computers besides play games.

This lack of direction is likely fueled by the fact that unlike most governing bodies, which must post an agenda in public at least 48 hours before each public meeting, SA can't seem to get its act or agenda together until sometime on the day of its meetings. In response to questions about when the Wednesday agenda would be available, The Daily Cougar was told the agendas are put into each senator's box on the day of the meeting.

Last fall SA initiated a newsgroup on the UH computer system. According to the initial postings by the organization, any member of the UH community with an e-mail account could access the newsgroup and learn more about SA and SA activities. The stated purpose of the newsgroup was to provide the campus with another avenue for interaction with SA and SA members.

For about a month, various senators used the newsgroup to post lengthy diatribes relating to their own personal opinions on various legislation. These quickly digressed into personal complaints and objections to SA actions on the resignation of the SA speaker and the political maneuvering that preceded the appointment of a new speaker. Then, almost mercifully, they quit posting anything, and the newsgroup remains silent to this day.

Perhaps the SA egos will consider posting their agenda on the newsgroup or in The Daily Cougar at least a day or so before they meet. Unless they have something to hide, posting an agenda seems like the American way to do things. Then, if we object to how SA spends our money, we will have an opportunity to know about it ahead of time, and possibly to do something about it.