With this year’s election completed and the next administration readying itself to take over in January, I can’t help but wonder, so what?
In talking with many students in recent weeks about CSU and even talking with the newly elected president, Arts & Sciences John McCoy, everyone seems to agree CSU has a problem.
The problem is that people don’t know what CSU does. They are the “voice of the student body” some will say, but what is that they are voicing? Who are they voicing it to? Do they even have real authority?
My gripe about CSU goes beyond the fact we aren’t entirely sure what CSU does and how CSU serves us, it’s the fact that the president, the executive vice president, assistant vice president for programming and the speaker of the board all collect salaries.
I was curious when I learned this because I didn’t know these positions were paid. I checked the Bylaws of the Creighton Students Union (page 18) and these salaries aren’t small. They appear what some may consider excessive, since I as well as others don’t know what is that CSU even does to earn these salaries.
This isn’t an accusation. I’m merely looking for an explanation as to why the president is paid $8,608 per year, the executive vice president – who ran un-opposed I might add – will be paid $8,070 next year, the assistant vice president for programming will receive stipends totaling $4,035 next year and the speaker of the board shall receive monthly stipends totaling $1,000 per semester.
I have no problem with people being fairly compensated for work they do, but without an explanation and justification for these salaries, it would appear they are disproportionate to the perception of what CSU does on campus.
Visibility was a campaign theme this fall that McCoy endorsed and I want to make sure the incoming administration doesn’t forget because I would hate for “newly-elected administration” to be synonymous with “Creighton lotto winners.”