Proposal creates unnecessary fee for UNR

Monday, September 28, 2009 - 10:14 PM

Half a million dollars is a lot of cash for a student government to have without plans of how to spend it. But, if a new eight-year plan released by President Eli Reilly started today that is exactly what would happen.

The plan and the fee have not taken effect, but the lack of planning and attitude of copy the other schools is stunning.

In the Associated Students of the University of Nevada Joint Vision 2017, Reilly’s plan proposes adding a $75-per-semester fee. The fee would pay for on-campus performing arts, a tutoring center and create a university student activities center, which would include student publications, programming, club advising and leadership development, which ASUN currently pays for.

It’s not a bad idea, but the separate fee and center would free up $500,000 of ASUN money that they don’t know what to do with yet. It’s as if the student government just wants more money for the sake of having more.

Although ASUN’s plan is modeled after other schools, the University of Nevada, Reno doesn’t run like other universities, so adding an extra student fee and student activities doesn’t mean this model will be successful here. UNR is known as the cheapest research university in the West and is doing more with less. It’s a drawing point that attracts many students to attend school here.

UNR works as an affordable university, giving students who might not be able to afford a pricier college the chance to receive a top-notch education.

The school makes improvements by finding donors for big projects like the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center or William N. Pennington Health Sciences Building, and copes by making do when state funding is cut.

If the university started charging students for every vision or idea for improvement, the university would lose a unique aspect of its culture, and no longer be able to give students a remarkable college experience at an affordable price.

The student government’s plans to “improve” the university with $500,000 and no concrete plan is inappropriate and irresponsible.

The Nevada Sagebrush can be reached at editor@nevadasagebrush.com.

Tags: ASUN, budget, staff editorial, student activities
Posted under: Opinions

5 Responses to “Proposal creates unnecessary fee for UNR”

Eric Thornley says: October 4th, 2009 at 1:13 pm

Eli Reilly’s plan in general is weak, and ignores alot of important factors. It is too broad and is basically the same plan that has been proposed several times before. Besides, he is lying when he says it “represents the change students want” because there was no vote on it. I I think the actual UNR administration had something to do with it too, and that is not a good thing.

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Jordan Connell says: October 4th, 2009 at 5:16 pm

Eric, I think you just live to be negative about everything. All you do is troll around and talk crap about every single person within our student government, Eli especially. If you have such an issue with the way our leadership is trying to improve the school why don’t you run for office. You dont take any personal initiative for your own school because you’d rather be at UNLV anyway. You run for President and fix it if you dont like it, but I doubt you’ll have any success because the student’s know that you have no personal investment in the university anyway. You talk down on our athletics, administration, and student government, yet you expect readers to take you seriously. Get over yourself.

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Shawn Tabat says: October 4th, 2009 at 5:31 pm

You provide so many facts and evidence to support your argument, I’m so compelled..

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DUUUUUUUUUUUDE says: October 4th, 2009 at 6:30 pm

Eric, it is so funny that you make all of these accusations about how the joint vision is, and yet offer no specifics to speak about… Which is why no one takes you seriously.

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Eric Thornley says: October 4th, 2009 at 9:27 pm

Well, if you guys want me to provide my own vision, I’ll be happy to oblige.

And here are the specifics:

1) The plan is to broad, does not give enough attention to academics.
2) The plan is a rehash of several previous proposals, I think the last one was in 2005. Eli’s promise for a 24-hour campus failed, so he puts it in his plan instead.
3) There is too much focus on trivial things, such as tutoring and athletic tradition
4) As this editorial points out, the plan offers no specifics on what the new “tax” will be used for.

If you guys are too lazy to open the PDF and see for yourself, then that is not my problem. Eli is smart guy…or at least I think, so he should be able to see his own mistakes and revise this plan, but then again, as I said, there is probably other interests at stake.

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