The Standard

Issue date: 10/16/07 Section: Opinion

This letter is in response to the Ghost Hunter article in Friday's paper. Students need to realize that this is not the first exclusion from a student-funded campus organization that they have faced. It is not unusual that whenever SAC brings in a lecturer, they select a certain few individuals to attend a free dinner with the lecturer before or after their lecture. Throughout my 3+ years with SAC, two of them on the executive board, I have met my fair share of artists, including Switchfoot, Demetri Martin and The Wreckers. I know for a fact the majority of the artists I have met were only because I had helped run the event. This excluded students who had paid for the artist and had only shown up for the show. Yes, SAC is funded with student fees ($8.40/student/semester to be exact), but so is SGA ($1/student/semester), and RHA ($20/student through your res hall fees). Allow me to list some more exclusions to students not affiliated with one of these organizations. Each semester, SGA takes a retreat with its cabinet members and spends anywhere between $100 to $1,000 on each trip. They, along with SAC, also send members to conferences at the expense of students, in an effort to better the members training. I've never actually been in RHA, but I'm sure that they do similar things with their members. So you see, the Ghost Hunt was a reward for the members of SAC who put time and effort into making the use of students' Student Involvement Fee better. I am currently a member of SAC and was unable to attend the "hunt" because of my lack of points, but had I attended five meetings, I would have been able to go. SAC is open to all students with minimal restrictions. You may say that you have class at 4 p.m. on Tuesdays so you are unable to attend, making the system unfair; but you as per SAC's Constitution, you are allowed a one semester waiver allowing you to attend only committee meetings and still remain a member of SAC, which could have granted you enough points to attend the "hunt." If students have a problem with the way that SAC is run, than they need to join the organization and have a say in how it is run. By not joining, they are allowing others to make decisions for them, so the only people that the complainers have to blame are themselves.


Bryan Diaz

senior, accountancy

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