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David is an occasional blogger, software engineer, Nintendo fanboy, liberal, news magazine addict, voracious TiVo user, and bibliophile. He was born in St. Louis, grew up in southern Indiana, and returned to St. Louis to attend Washington University. He hasn't managed to escape yet. He's a fan of free wine tastings, too many tv shows to name, and eating out. David makes his living developing web applications used internally by his employer. He doesn't blog about work because he's heard too many stories about that causing workplace troubles. There's more on the about page. |
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21 April 2002 - 1:38 pm
The following only really applies to WashU students, so if you don't go to WashU you might want to stop reading now.
Sorry about harping on this so much, but the more I think about the situation with W.I.L.D., the more upset I get. Team 31 (the group on campus that runs W.I.L.D.) is accountable to no one, and seems to relish operating in secrecy. And despite this, Student Union gives them more than $100k. This wouldn't bother me as much, I suspect, if SU didn't make all the other campus groups jump through endless hoops that organizations like Team 31 are exempt from. ACM, for example, has to justify all our expenditures, and our proposed budget is available to anyone. We also have to do a certain amount of fundraising, or our allocation will be cut. Team 31 seems not to have to follow these rules. Their money is allocated by the SU execs directly, so therre is little scrutiny of their budget, and no fundraising rules apply to them. In fact, although I think I've pointed this out already, no rules seem to apply to them. There's a rumor going around campus that Team 31 donated last semester's money to charity after Wyclef backed out to perform in the Michael Jackson tribute concert. If this is true, while the sentiment is to be applauded, the actual act is very inappropriate. They were allocated money from the student activity fees to provide activities for the students, not to give the money away. And all the cloak-and-dagger intrigue surrounding Team 31's band selection process is another issue entirely.
However, in order for this to change, WashU students need to let their voices be heard. If you're interested in trying to make Team 31 more accountable to all WashU students, please send me an email. I'm thinking of starting a campaign for changes in the way certain large groups are allocated funds by SU, and I want to see if anyone is interested in participating. If I get a lot of emails on this, I'll be more motivated to actually act, so please drop me a line if you think this is a good idea (and are willing to help out).
Posted by on 21 April 2002 at 1:35 AM
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