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ASG spends $2,000 on gifts, meals

Half of budget goes to executive board salaries

By Ceili Doyle, The Miami Student

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article inaccurately stated that $63 of each student's student fees goes toward ASG's internal operating budget. However, the money goes to ASG's overall budget, not its internal operating budget.

Every semester Miami University students fork over tens of thousands of dollars in tuition fees -- $63 of which go to the Associated Student Government (ASG) overall budget.

Currently, ASG has allocated themselves $83,077 of the $1.2 million they have to dole out to all student organizations on campus, according to the 2016-2017 Internal Operating Budget obtained by The Miami Student.

Within the budget, $980 is built into "Cabinet Gifts" every year, the traditional practice for cabinet members to exchange presents, said Amy Berg, ASG's secretary for communications and media relations. Another line item includes $1,100 budgeted for "Cabinet Dinners."

In addition, $49,221 of the aforementioned budget (roughly 59.2 percent) goes toward the salaries of the 14 paid members of the Cabinet.

"ASG is not considered a student organization," Berg said. "We are a governing body of the school. Therefore, since we are not a student organization, we operate under different funding regulations."

The Residence Hall Association (RHA) operates as a body in a similar fashion to ASG, but their funding is separate from the student government. The H.O.M.E. Office allocates RHA $7,000 to distribute to up to 37 residence halls, including Heritage Commons and Miami Inn.

However, none of the Residence Associates or members of the executive board in RHA are paid stipends for their efforts.

"When you have students in power representing other students and those positions of power have financial and personal incentives, you get people that potentially may be doing it for the wrong reasons," said Bradley Davis, vice president of RHA.

Each cabinet member of ASG is given a set stipend for their work. Each member of cabinet does roughly 12-15, or more, hours of work each week dedicated to improving the student experience, Berg said.

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Some students around campus were surprised to learn that ASG cabinet members hold paid positions.

"Honestly I had no idea that the cabinet positions are paid for," sophomore, Olivia White said. "I feel as though elected officials should not be paid because representing our school positively is something we all should want to do."

Some students have echoed their concerns on whether or not ASG is holding itself to a different standard than the student body it governs.

"There is a process where if students believe ASG is not doing their job, I would encourage any student to talk to their senator to ask them hard questions and even challenge them: why did you vote to approve this budget when these [incentives] are included?" Senate Advisor, Dr. Eric Buller said.

These incentives -- included in the line item budget -- are not publicized by ASG and have raised questions regarding the way the student government utilizes student fees.

"That's the way the process works, I'm not in a position to tell you whether those perks are necessary or not," Buller said. "If you want to question it, you should question it."