By Ashley Jennings

The monthly stipend received by the vice executive officers of the University of Louisville Student Government Association is expected to be relinquished effective 2007-08, by vote of the student senate. Rising tuition was cited as one of the chief reasons for the likely salary cuts.

SGA vice presidents currently receive full state tuition and a monthly stipend of about $260 for their services. And because students enter upon these offices generally with other scholarships covering tuition, the salary of each vice president for one-term can total $7,000. Furthermore, there have been talks of adding another vice president to the staff, which already contains three vice presidents – executive, academic, and services.

Senate resolution 12, which was introduced to the senate on Jan. 16, aims to eliminate the monthly stipend. The resolution was sent to the appropriations committee for further deliberation and is expected to be re-introduced at the next senate meeting.

It was drafted by College of Arts and Science Student Council President Josh Campbell, a senior majoring in business administration and chemistry, College of A & S Senator Joe Elliott, a junior political science and economics major, and College of Business Senator Justin Faith, a junior finance major.

Campbell said his concern was that yearly increases in tuition have raised the salaries of officers. “The more tuition goes up the more that they are paid,” Campbell said. “I feel that a yearly 10 percent increase in pay in a student leadership position is inappropriate.”

With the advent of a possible double digit increase in tuition, Campbell estimated that each vice president will earn around $11,000 a year from now. And SGA senators, he said, get paid $100 a semester.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” said junior Brittany Barnes, an employee at commuter student services.

“I work for campus in the computer labs and devote a lot of time to the school, but I don’t get tuition remission.”

But SGA President Darrell Messer said that being a student government officer was like a “regular job” but “with more responsibilities.”

Craig Magruder, a junior communications major, said that “most students have full time jobs that equal the responsibilities of SGA, if not more, but we don’t get help with tuition. If I would have known that I could have saved $20,000 on tuition, I would have run for student government.”

Messer, a senior computer engineer major, said, “For me personally, if I didn’t receive compensation, I wouldn’t be able, financially, to serve as SGA President,” adding, “I have a full tuition scholarship, in addition to the tuition remission and monthly stipend,” he explained, “but when you spread that out to cover rent, food, gas and other needs for survival, it really isn’t that much,”

Messer went on to say that he does, however, foresee the resolution being passed.

A & S Senator Maggie Lorenz said she was initially against the cut in salary, fearing that potential office holders may not be to handle financial commitments without the monthly stipend.

However, “The point was made at the senate meeting that the vice presidents are not above taking out student loans like most students at the University of

Louisville do,” said Lorenz, a senior majoring in women and gender studies and liberal studies.

And although Lorenz said she appreciates the work that SGA executive officers do, she asked, “But at what point are they getting too much to come to school?”

If the resolution ends up passing, Campbell said that the money saved from the pay cuts should be redistributed to better support needs of students.

According to Campbell, SGA’s central budget of $600,000 finances executive salaries as well as the operating costs of the Student Activities Board, all the student councils of each college, and other student projects relating to SGA.

The next senate meeting is on Feb. 6, in the Floyd Theatre.