Letter: Digmann “Student senate spending”

Dear Editor,

I am absolutely outraged at the amount of money student senate is using for their trip to Louisiana. Let’s break things down.  There are five men, two women and an adviser going which means they need four rooms.  The conference begins on the 21st, with registration from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. and ends the 24th at 10 a.m. This means they only need hotel rooms for three nights.

$3,000 split between four rooms for three nights comes down to $250 per room per night.  I looked up where the conference is located and one room is only $180 per night. Plus there is a Holiday Inn within walking distance that is only $150 per night, so I’m sure they could do some research and find some cheaper places to stay.

My next issue is the fact that they are flying. Pre-vet club travelled to North Carolina last year for a symposium and they drove. Why does senate need to spend that much more money to fly. It is approximately 1,500 miles to New Orleans. If you approximate a van getting 15 miles to the gallon and gas costing $4 per gallon. It would only cost $800 round trip for them to drive. Instead, the student body of CSC is paying $4000 to fly these students.

My third problem with this trip is that they are being given $1,700 for meals. Five of their meals are already included in the registration costs. The only meals they have to cover on their own is three nights of dinner, and two lunches. That is giving each person more than $40 to spend on each meal that the students are paying for. I understand things are more expensive in larger cities such as New Orleans, but I think that is excessive, especially because other students are paying for it.

I played rugby for part of my sophomore year. Because of where Chadron is located, it is completely necessary to travel for games. We were only allowed to spend $150 on travel for the entire school year. The trips I did go on usually entailed staying at a random friend-of-a-player’s house because we could not afford hotels, and taking cars that were as full as they could possibly be, since we had to pay for our own gas.

As a member of Allies, we tried taking three members to a conference in Michigan last year, but were unable to go because we did not have the funding to do so. Why do seven member of Senate get such better treatment than any other club on campus? Based on my calculations
above, this trip could take place for under $10,000 instead of the $16,000 they are going to be spending.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think it would benefit everyone more to not spend that much money on seven people.

Allyson Digmann, senior of Rapid City, S.D.