Even as the A.S. Council scrambles to find any semblance of money to give back to students, the issue of its own stipends remains a contested issue.

Currently, stipends are tiered between president, vice presidents and commissioners. Thurgood Marshall College Junior Senator Jason Hoskins proposed during a budget meeting to vary stipend amounts among A.S. executive officers according to the amount of work put into respective positions. This faulty plan was rightly voted down. The time spent by each officer in a position is ambiguous and variable, and would open doors to never-ending debate over which commissioner or vice president deserves a larger stipend.

Some senators argued that staggered stipends would represent a step toward a self-sufficient council by shaping the governing body after a business model. However, current stipends for officers are too small to truly reward better performance. Until stipends become more than a symbolic gesture, any attempt to create an autonomous, businesslike A.S. Council would be wishful thinking.

Commissioner of Programming Eric Morris provided the wisest suggestion during budget talks, recommending the substitution of individual-stipend hikes and cuts for the creation of entire office budgets. A “spread-the-wealth” mentality would promote higher production from whole areas of student government without stirring a bee’s nest of individual stipend disputes.

As for Morris himself, the majority of senators agreed that the programming commissioner’s workload is too heavy in proportion to the position’s current compensation. Creating a vice president position for Morris alone would bump the commissioner of programming up into a higher pay category, satisfying both councilmembers and the programming office.