Frugal spending could help equity
Recently, I learned that the greek community received $10,000 from next year’s student fees to produce CD-ROMs for recruitment purposes. Later, this request changed to developing a Web site after the councils’ advisers met to discuss how they wished to spend the money.
Apparently, the greek community, taking the lead of universities such as TCU and the University of Southern California, requested the money originally to produce CD-ROMs for recruitment. The line item request, made through the Senate appropriations committee, passed the committee primarily because the presenters labeled it as a one-time cost for the university.
These CDs (and I have viewed one from TCU) provide a rundown of what the greek community is about on that campus, personal testimonies, messages from various university and greek officials, along with a whole slew of information concerning everything greek. Included on that CD at the beginning is a long list of sponsors that helped fund the project, a fact not mentioned in the Senate request for money.
According to a Sept. 11 article in The Daily Skiff, TCU’s student newspaper, TCU was able to raise $6,000 in advertising for the CD. Each IFC and Panhellenic chapter paid $150, while the NPHC chapters paid $50 due to smaller member numbers. In addition, chapter dues helped with the final cost of $4,000, which was split by the school’s IFC and Panhellenic organizations.
This information, as an engineering major, piqued my interest at last Tuesday’s Senate meeting – a meeting in which several student organizations, including Leadership Consultant Council and Asian Council, complained about their appropriated money by citing the greek councils’ request.
During the course of defending why the councils should keep the money, MGC adviser Michelle Espino revealed that the council advisers had decided to spend the money on a Web site rather than CD-ROMs. This, again, piqued my interest. $10,000 … for a Web site … Hmmm …
I wasn’t quite sure what to think of this proposal. Surely the greek councils had done their research and found other companies for CD-ROM estimates. Surely they had talked to people other than RISE Media Company, the company selected for CD-ROM production for TCU and Texas A&M.
To my surprise, the answer was no. Now, I am not a great webmaster or web designer – the fine folks on last year’s LCC Advisory Board can back that up. But I know a little bit about how much Web sites cost, and the figure is a lot less than $10,000.
My first response was, of course, to look for students who would be willing to do the job for: No. 1. Free, No. 2. Class credit or No. 3. A significant fraction of the cost.
On my way to research the proposal, I ran into greek community member and first-year student Cristin Lavelle. I took Cristin on a little field trip to a dark place that very few students travel to. It is another world business majors are sometimes afraid of entering: Caruth Hall, the engineering hub.
Cristin and I ran into International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers President Judah Epstein with the TCU recruitment CD in hand. Epstein was shown the CD contents. We asked him whether or not he could do the same job for less than $10,000, and he explained that he could, as could the company he works for. Epstein said that students were more than capable of producing the content on the CD for the Web because his members know all of the programs needed to create it.
Now, I’ve known Epstein and other capable students at the engineering school for years. They’ve worked for professional companies, producing high quality Web sites on the side.
Epstein showed us his work, and we were satisfied with it. He implored us that students, or the professional company he works for – any professional company for that matter – could do the job for well under $10,000.
The next day I asked others – Schultz for one, and university employee Katy Scott, who designs Web sites on the side for her own company. Schultz said that the university could do it for free if the information was already compiled, which is what RISE would get – already ready information. The only cost would be for hiring someone to write the information for the site and shoot any photos/videos. Scott, an employee in SMU’s Office of News and Information, said her company could do the job in 50 hours for the Web after being shown the CD-ROM. She charges $50 an hour, and that, my friends, is $2,500.
With all of this information in hand, I met with Espino to discuss the merits of the project. We both agreed that the project was a positive move that would give all four councils equitable exposure on the Web site, a major concern of the greek community. After all, despite member numbers, exposure and financial considerations, MGC and NPHC have suffered from inequity. The Web site would help with that problem.
The meeting was productive – Espino has done more for this university than anyone on campus ever gives her credit for, especially with MGC. But her assertion that the Web site, rather than programming money for MGC and NPHC for local recruitment at the high school levels, would aid equity more was a fundamental difference we had. Also, as Espino acknowledged, the price is too high.
Apparently, the money was intended for CD-ROMs when they presented it to the appropriations committee, a move intended to replace the recruitment booklets. When the focus changed to the Web site, the priorities changed. The marketplace for companies that mass-produce customized CD-ROMs is rather small, so competition is low and prices are high.
When the decision was made to change to a Web site as a focus for the money, the marketplace widely expanded, which means bigger competition and drastically lower prices.
Espino agreed, but the time frame – the Web site needs to be completed by June 1 – and the reliability of students were major concerns. I empathized with both concerns – students can be unreliable, and time is a factor.
Espino also worried that the perception is that the greek councils are not going to spend the money wisely and frugally while keeping in mind the quality of the site and the time crunch.
Now comes the opinion portion of this commentary – an opinion I’m sure everyone is waiting to hear. Let me premise this with my motivations for researching this topic: to better spend student fees through proper research and wise spending practices, not to take down the greeks.
In my opinion, the money should not be taken away from the greek community. I trust the advisers and the greek student leaders. If I didn’t, there is no way I would have been involved on campus. We rely on these people to help students make wise decisions about how money should be spent, amongst a slew of other things.
More importantly, we rely on student leaders to wisely spend our money. Given the chance to hear other bids, I am confident that the greek councils will find exactly what they want for considerably less.
After they have done so, the question with what should be done with the remainder of the money is up for debate. Should it be given back to Senate residuals, as Espino has suggested, if they find a lower bid?
Maybe. Should it be used for greek leadership conference? Possibly. Should it be used to subsidize other organizations that the appropriations committee cut? Again, a good consideration.
But my suggestion is a little different. Let the greek community keep the money. But give it to those groups that need it within that community – MGC and NPHC.
Whole programs for each of these entities were cut significantly by the Senate, including a College 101 program for MGC that would help it recruit local students by telling them about MGC and educating them about SMU.
This may not sit well with IFC and Panhellenic, which already pick up a significant part of the financial tab on other programs the greeks do togethe
r. But it would send a strong message from those groups that equity among the councils is important.
Fixing the greek council equity issue is about three major issues in my opinion – member numbers, organization visibility and the almighty dollar. If the remaining money was given to MGC and NPHC to help with these issues, Senate and the greek community would be sending a strong message about the importance of equity on campus.
If anything can be done to help MGC and NPHC with local visibility through productive programming and recruiting tools, it should be supported financially and by the university. Using the extra money for those purposes would be a wise move.
