If there were such a thing as a cushy campus job, being a member of the Registration Fee Advisory Committee would be it. Appointed by the A.S. Council and each of the six colleges, RFAC members essentially offer advice on how the university should spend our money — and get paid a pretty penny doing it.
Each new appointee to the board receives compensation of more than $1,660 for two quarters of work, while the student chairman rakes in three times that much (though the chair works all three quarters). And this year, members of the A.S. Council sent one of their own — Vice President of Academic Affairs Harry Khanna — to fill the lucrative slot. Last year, too, the council appointed then-A.S. President Jenn Pae to the committee, yet another time a valuable student opportunity was filled in-house.
Though RFAC is perhaps the most glaring exercise in cronyism, incest in committee appointments is not new at UCSD. Every year, it seems, the same half a dozen students monopolize the campus’ leadership opportunities, which may explain the stagnation that has continued to paralyze our student government. It may also explain why fewer than one of every five students even bother to participate in campus elections.
To call the council a student government would be a bit of an overstatement. Instead, the A.S. Council is more of a patron in a client-like relationship, doling out fast cash to pacify hungry constituencies: a few thousand for student outreach here, to feed the cultural orgs; a few hundred on convention travel here, for the clubs; and a couple hundred there to buy business cards for A.S. senators.
But committee appointments are different. Campus-wide advisory bodies actually perform an invaluable task, providing feedback from real students on university policies ranging from the food selection at dining halls to the deadlines for dropping classes. Or at least that is what they’re supposed to do, when real, representative students serve on them.
In recent years, though, the A.S. Council has had a hell of a time finding actual students to appoint, turning instead to the usual A.S. flunkies and cronies. My cell phone is programmed with the numbers of most of the people who filled the committee posts last year — and if they think I’m cool enough to talk to, they are certainly not representative of the regular campus population.
One interesting tale is the history of Revelle College senior Jared Feldman, whose A.S. resume is as long as the average A.S. Council caucus (an endless, dreary discussion that generally has little purpose and ends with few actual decisions). After running unsuccessfully for an elected office in spring 2004, Feldman served last year as Pae’s chief of staff. During his tenure, Feldman also served as the A.S. representative — the proverbial “Average Joe student” — to at least three committees. This year, he’s also been tapped by University Centers Director Gary R. Ratcliff to chair the powerful University Centers Advisory Board, the body that decides how most student-funded facilities operate and which eateries secure leases at Price Center. UCAB was, ironically, one of the few committees Feldman did not serve on last year.
The problem is not Feldman and Khanna — both are extremely competent and probably the most qualified students to fill the spots — but the general absence of innovative new ideas that is the consequence of cronyism. The average A.S. appointee has as much legitimacy representing UCSD’s undergraduate student body as the occupation-handpicked Iraqi Governing Council had in representing the Iraqi population. Which is to say, not a whole lot.
If the same students run the campus year after year, all of us suffer from a student government culture that abhors change, no matter how incremental. That may explain why the biggest debates on the A.S. Council every year seem to be about how much money to give to Marshallpalooza at the expense of Muirstock, and vice versa.
If students care about cronyism, as their grumbling about President George W. Bush’s most recent Supreme Court nominee suggests, they should start doing something about it at home.The first step would be for them to actually go to student leaders, and demand that they — not councilmembers and friends — fill the important posts.
Perhaps a regular undergraduate would not offer the detailed knowledge and expertise that Feldman and Khanna bring to the table, but student representatives to campus-wide committees are not appointed for their knowledge; they’re there to represent the rest of the student body, and to shatter the status quo.
And for too many years to count, the status quo has been in dire need of a kick in the ass.
