RUSA proposes to start paying executive board members

February 18, 2015 1:10am | By Katie Park

Photo by The Daily Targum | The Daily Targum The Rutgers University Student Assembly is planning to present a proposal on Thursday evening that would allow them to spend $15,904 a semester to compensate its 12 executive board members.



In a little more than 24 hours, the Rutgers University Student Assembly will convene for one of its regularly scheduled general student body meetings.

The items docketed for RUSA’s agenda tomorrow evening, though, are expected to be more divisive than those in recent history.

A recent proposal to be presented by RUSA members tomorrow will suggest compensation totaling nearly $16,000 for the 12 executive members of the student government organization beginning in the fall of 2015, said Sam Clark, parliamentarian for RUSA.

The proposal was inspired by the student government infrastructure of Rutgers’ Big Ten peers, said Clark, a School of Arts and Sciences senior.

“A wide variety of other student governing associations pay their members, including most, if not all, of the Big Ten schools,” he said.

He said he believes in the success of the model because the compensation will bring greater commitment to the position.

The student government president of Ohio State is given a full ride for the year, yet she also works 40 hours a week for her student body, he said. Paying RUSA staff will put the pressure on the executive board to bring tangible, impactful results to the student body.

Lisabeth Matyash, a graduate student in the School of Communication and Information, thought otherwise.

“I thought it was a little odd that a student executive board was going to get paid,” she said. “Because, you know, it’s a weird thing to hear — a lot of us have been in positions and we don’t get paid for that kind of stuff. It’s a club. You do it.”

The proposal, which has elicited support and disdain alike from members of the student body, is still in its primordial stages, Clark said.

A presentation for the proposal tomorrow evening will clarify and respond to issues raised by members of the audience, he said.

Until the meeting, members of the student body have aired complaints about the strategies the plan has put forth.

RUSA would allocate $15,904 per semester to pay its president, vice president, treasurer, secretary and parliamentarian, Clark said.

He said the president, who would be required to work at least 16 hours a week, would be paid $2,688 per semester.

The vice president and treasurer would be required to clock in at least 14 hours a week and be paid $1,680, he said.

The secretary and parliamentarian would work at least 10 hours and each of the committee chairs would work at least eight hours, earning $1,400 and $1,008, respectively, Clark said.

This money would come from the student life funds, which is collected each semester through students’ tuition, said Khermesh Badushov, a member of the Rutgers chapter of GlobeMed, a grassroots global health initiative.

The money that RUSA would need to pay its staff would cut into the budgets for other clubs under student life, including but not limited to clubs such as GlobeMed, said Badushov, a School of Arts and Sciences junior.

“GlobeMed’s budget has been cut in half this academic school year, and (we) got allocated $900 for our largest campaign when we were given $2,000 last year,” she said.

Clark said he hopes RUSA can find alternatives to potentially pay its staff, hopefully with grants or a referendum.

“We do not want this to negatively affect any group here,” he said.

If the proposal was approved, Clark said RUSA would practice a rigorous system of checks and balances to prevent bribery and corruption to handle the large sum of money.

“It (would be a) multiparty system,” he said. “You (would) have the president of RUSA, the vice president, the student affairs chair, the internal affairs chair and a non-RUSA member of student life,” he said.

Each paid member would be required to submit a biweekly report of their hours, and the reports would be sent through multiple position holders, ending with a review by the non-RUSA member, he said.

Clark emphasized the role of the non-RUSA member, a student chosen by the student life advisor to conduct arbitrary business work.

He said the non-RUSA member raises an important point because it opens the doors to a valid question of what RUSA is doing.

“We’re a Big Ten school," he said. "We should start acting like a Big Ten SGA."

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