Membership dues reduce expenses

I have never had a problem with the SA fee. The Student Association performs a vital, valuable function for the entire student body, by providing us with events to entertain and educate us. Sex education and self defense courses are just two examples of things that the Student Association offers to benefit our campus as a whole.

I disagree with the fact that clubs are funded by the money raised from a mandatory fee. Clubs should raise their own revenue from the collection of membership dues instead of providing each student free membership to any club they choose.

Some students do not want to be in clubs, and therefore should not have to pay for them.

This is not to say that clubs should not be able to apply to the Student Association to fund club activities, like ski trips, movies and water balloon fights, but members of a specific club should also bear some of the burden in maintaining something they love.

That is the way the real world works. Want to be a member at the elk’s lodge? Pay your dues. If not, then don’t.

A part of me believes the money raised by the SA fee gets squandered on clubs people only join because they are free. Rather than giving someone the opportunity to join a cause they really believe in, it is really just giving them a way to occupy themselves while spending a little bit of their and everybody else’s money.

Clubs charging fees would most likely reduce the volume of club membership, but in place of less people you would have more dedicated members willing to pay to be in the club of their choice.

I love being able to sign up for a free club as much as any other student, and believe that clubs provide students the means to meet people that share similar interests, but I also believe a club membership is taken lightly when you don’t have to do anything but show up.

Also, do not confuse my argument with saying students should be on their own if they want to plan a ski trip or something of that kind. Clubs would theoretically be able request funding from the Student Association in the same manner they always have, and since the theoretical Student Association would have more money in its coffers from not having to completely support superfluous clubs.

Critics may say that my theory is callous, and does not consider those who are less fortunate economically, but I disagree. If a standard club due was established by the clubs and activities board, I doubt they would make it large enough to break the bank. Critics may also say that my argument operates chiefly on the assumption that there are unnecessary clubs that leech funding from the larger, more popular clubs, and that my theory would somehow punish the whole for a minimal amount of waste.

I tend to think that club members would be more selective about what they spent their money on knowing it was theirs and not the Student Association’s. I agree that they should be partially funded, but do not think any club should be given carte blanche to piddle away.

None of these changes will ever be made, and perhaps that is for the best. What this column proposes is a complex restructuring of a system that really does not appear to be broken, but nonetheless, we should never settle with being wasteful.

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Instead, the Student Association fee gives clubs the freedom to share those subjects with students who might not be familiar with them.

Isn’t the freedom to share and discover knowledge what college is all about? We already pay to learn about the world through lectures and textbooks. Why not use the Student Association fee to learn about it face-to-face?