The controversy is not necessarily about whether or not student leaders deserve compensation. It’s about how much.
On July 15, the Associated Students of the University of Utah General Assembly unanimously passed a bill to increase compensation numbers virtually across the board.
The ASUU Student Senate will review the bill tonight.
According to ASUU President Adrian Johnson, the real debate is whether student leaders should be compensated or whether they’re in positions of service.
“I think it’s both,” Johnson said.
With the bill in effect, Johnson, along with ASUU Vice President Anthony White, would receive compensations of $900 per month, an increase from the previous amount of $750.
They’re not the only ones.
Nearly everyone from Assembly delegates to board directors will see increases.
Only ASUU Supreme Court Justices and individual board members would see slight decreases in compensation.
The bill is set to go into effect by July 30. However, it has to go through a number of steps before that, the final of which is an approval by the Board of Trustees.
A similar bill, passed by last year’s Assembly, was rejected by the University Joint Apportionment Board just recently, according to ASUU Attorney General Colby Harmon.
The reasoning was that the ASUU general budget had already been passed, and the new bill would have exceeded the budget.
This time, the bill specifies taking the additional needed funding out of the general reserve for the current year, only to be budgeted in next year, Harmon said.
The reasons behind the compensation increases were increases in living expenses, the inability of lower-income students to get involved because of the current compensation numbers, and the fact that some compensation hasn’t increased (like the president and vice president’s) for about six years, among others.
Aside from that, some student leaders find themselves working too many hours to be able to take another job.
According to Harmon, it is estimated that the president, vice president and chief of staff put in more than 40 hours a week.
The chief of staff, for example, was compensated at a rate of $250 per month. At that rate, the compensation was approximately $2.59 per hour. With the increase to $600 per month, the compensation would be at a rate of about $3.46 per hour, Harmon said.
Similar statistics are true for the president and vice president, he said.
“To pay [the president and vice president] $900 per month was still kind of robbing them,” said Andrea Muhlestein, an Assembly delegate for the College of Social and Behavioral Science.
According to Muhlestein, while the increase won’t allow everyone interested to take a part in student government, it does open the door to many.
“We’re positive that we’re missing out on a lot of good leadership,” Harmon said.
Not many would argue with that, but some are still cautious.
“I think it’s good that they have compensation…I think it’s a bit excessive,” said U junior Deborah Pond.
Pond says that while sometimes compensation rates might “weed out a lot of the people who should have the ability to run [for office],” being a student leader is a position which requires a lot of sacrifices, and time and money may be two of them.
“Money should not be a factor,” she said.