Aren’t the Associated Students of the University of Utah supposed to receive guidance from somewhere?

It’s easy to see how inexperienced students transitioning to new positions in the Presenter’s Office may not have considered every little aspect of Redfest, but when thousands of dollars are on the line, they should at least be guided to ensure they don’t miss anything significant.

Case in point: The Union Board hired additional help to sell this year’s Redfest tickets under the impression that it would be receiving a $1 service fee per ticket sold-an agreement reached with last year’s P.O. after an excessive demand for Grand Kerfuffle tickets-which would go toward various Union expenses.

Brandon Reynon, Union supervisor, said that the Union Board even submitted a formal contract to ASUU to institute a permanent service fee-at just 50 cents per ticket-but the document “went over their heads,” he said, and was never signed.

Whose heads? Are the students of the Presenter’s Office expected to be accounting whizzes and experts on contract law? Isn’t there somebody around that place who knows how to run a business?

After all was said and done, the Union Board didn’t receive a dime and is understandably perturbed. ASUU comes off looking as though it thinks it is the Union’s duty to do its bidding and not ask questions.

True, the pay of individual Union workers was not affected, but at the very least, ASUU’s oversight was inconsiderate and misguided.

If there was any dispute about the language or terms of the former contract, the conciliatory version the Union Board and ASUU recently signed states that ASUU must provide a $1 service fee (instead of 50 cents) to the Union Board for every ticket sold-the first such provision in school history.

The situation has simmered since the agreement, but questions about the student government’s behavior remain.

ASUU is supposed to be an organization that provides students with the resources necessary to learn a variety of important skills and responsibilities in government and business.

While the independence of the participants is crucial to the student government experience, the advisers who have been with the school for years and sifted through vast oceans of paperwork need to step in and take a more active role in the organization.

Clearly, intervention was necessary during last year’s Kerfuffle, and ASUU is in serious danger of developing a negative pattern.