The (ISA) received $9,000 for the Diwali festival. Is this because the SGA has a ton of money to throw around? In past sessions there would always be compromise and cuts to clubs asking for money for trips and events.
The SGA has been known to throw money around on occasion. There was the $3,000 that was budgeted for a welcome back party last semester sponsored by the SGA, Student Welfare Committee. After ticket sales were factored in they came to losing $1000-$1500 as reported in the Feb. 19, 2008 issue of the Independent. The June 2, 2004 issue of the Independent was reported that a SGA party had a $20,000 budget. Both parties had low attendance.
When you do the math for the Diwali festival event, the SGA is spending over $9,000. The cost of the event is about $10,000 and the ISA is putting out about $1,000. Due to the capacity of the auditorium and the SGA getting back one dollar on every ticket, the most the SGA can make is $400 if it is a sold out crowd (that would be likely to happen.) The other three dollars goes to a charity in India.
That would be one dollar for ISA for each student and six dollars for every non-student. So let’s say there are 100 students in a sold out crowd, (also likely to happen.) The ISA stands to make $1,900 on the event, which will probably be used toward next year’s event. $1,600 goes to charity and $400 goes back to the SGA.
In a nutshell, the charity profits $1,600 on the event ISA profits $900 on the event, and the SGA loses $8,600 on the event. When you do the math, it doesn’t add up, especially when $9,000 of tuition and other university funding is being contributed. The event only grosses $3,900. That is a net loss of $6,100.
It is easy to look at how this funding affects the SGA, but who funds the SGA? That would be the students and the student activities fee that all students pay to attend the university.
There is $1,600 going not only outside the university, but outside of the country. Not that I don’t think children in India deserve an education; I do. I just don’t feel it should be at the expense of my own education.
This money needs to be kept internally to help keep tuition down. if it does not go to the SGA that’s fine, but a scholarship for an NEIU student would keep the money inside the university, help keep education costs down and still keep the charity movement going.
As soon as the ISA decided to charge students admission it went from an event to benefit the public to a business. The ISA needs to look at either raising ticket prices to cover costs or reduce the cost of the event.
There is also a gain for an organization outside of the university; that puts this more into a business bracket. The numbers I put forward are my own projections for the event. In order to break even, all tickets would have to go up $15.25. It is not uncommon to see a show in Chicago and pay $20-25 for a seat even in the smallest of clubs.
If there is not one student in the audience, the ISA will only take in $4,000 from the $10,000 event with the current ticket price. Sen. Agron had it right; there is little gain economically for the event and large outside numbers inhibit students from attending. She stood alone in her opposition in the SGA meeting on the topic.
This is the kind of government spending that has plagued not only the SGA, but the U.S. for many generations. Costs out-do the profits or benefits. When money can be made the government is left taking a loss, and money that could be used to benefit us domestically is being sent oversea.