The president of SGA gets paid an astronomical amount of money to do, well, nothing really.The Student Government Association at Youngstown State University exists as a representation of students and student organizations in “matters affecting student life and affairs.”
Among some minor duties, the president of the SGA:
Serves as the official student representative on appropriate university committees, or appoints an individual to serve in his/her absence.
Approves or vetoes any legislation moved by the Legislative Assembly.
Submits recommendations for executive committee members to the Legislative Assembly for its approval when article VIII of this constitution requires such approval.
So what does that really mean? Well, no one really knows, but the president’s pay for this academic year is $14,799.
The 2010-2011 school year pay period is from Aug. 16, 2010, to May 15, 2011, which is only nine months or 39 weeks. For those of you not too savvy at math, that’s $379 a week.
This might not seem like a lot of money to the average person. But to the average college student working a minimum wage job at $7.25 an hour, that’s an ample amount. A college student making minimum wage would have to work 52.3 hours a week to make what the SGA president makes in probably one-third of that time.
So what exactly does the SGA do? Well, this year it took a stand against the lack of coffee sleeves on campus because they really care about the well being of YSU students – and their hands. But that’s only one thing that the SGA did this year. The organization also did “volunteer” work and cleaned up Wick Park on Feb. 26.
But does providing more coffee sleeves for campus and organizing a park cleanup really warrant a $14,799 paycheck?
The answer is no.
So what should the university do about it? YSU can start by awarding the proper amount of money for the jobs that the students do. Just because you’re the “president” of something does not mean that you should be awarded a lot of money for very little work. Or it could also provide more tasks that justify such a large paycheck.
However, just because someone should do something doesn’t mean that they’re going to. Therefore, the SGA president will continue to make $14,799 for doing very little and most everyone else will continue to get paid the standard minimum wage. Maybe the SGA’s next agenda can be changing student pay rates.
