WE AT THE University are supposed to operate within a community of trust, but over the past few months my trust in the University has been broken. As The Cavalier Daily reported in its Sept. 4 article, "A&S Council president resigns after stipend dispute," I will no longer be able to retain my position as president of the Arts & Sciences Council.My resignation from this post is effective today. However, I would like to elaborate on my reasons for resignation and the University's role in imposing this decision upon me.
Student leaders are strongly encouraged to spend their summer in Charlottesville to prepare for the coming school year. The ASC president is no exception. In its budget, the Council includes a $2,000 stipend to compensate the president for his or her efforts to organize for the coming year and schedule programs. Other leaders of major, University-wide organizations are similarly compensated from their respective sources of funding. ASC sets its budget as a self-governed student group, and our faculty advisor approved this year's budget with the stipend included.
I ran for office with a full understanding of my summer responsibilities and the subsequent compensation. Had I been alerted to the payment alteration in the spring, I could have secured additional employment. When I asked College administrators throughout the month of May, however, I was assured that the stipend would be available to me when I began fulfilling my duties as ASC president. When I calculated my summer expenses, I found the stipend sufficient to pay for rent, utilities and living expenses -- all of which I would incur explicitly because I was living in Charlottesville to fulfill my responsibilities as ASC president.
It was not until I returned to the University in mid-June that I was finally told the truth: I would not receive the stipend. By this time, the summer job market was extremely tight. After pleading and negotiating with College administrators and staff for over a week, I was finally entered into College payroll to receive an hourly wage.
In the meantime, I was forced to borrow money to pay off my mounting and immediate debts. As the days wore on, and I vainly went between staff members' offices trying to resolve my predicament, I became increasingly distraught by the University's failure to meet its obligations. I felt left out to dry. I had been promised certain financial support by the University, but the University violated its promise. Though I encountered many sympathetic staff members and administrators who wanted to help, their hands were tied. There seemed to be no authority to which I could voice my concerns or seek restitution.
It was at this point that I first learned about Oracle, the University's accounting system. What I presently know about Oracle I have gathered from speaking with various University employees this summer. I was told that the reason I could not receive the stipend as it had been implemented in years past was due to the fact that student payment was not a "project" for which the Arts & Sciences Council's budget could be approved under the Oracle procedure. Even though it had been permitted in previous years, from what I could discern, certain personnel were unwilling to make an allowance that they had previously made, and they neglected to alert me until the middle of the summer. This change may have only been an afterthought to them, but it directly and profoundly affected my financial and personal well-being. From my experience, I learned that Oracle's inflexibility and ultimate control rendered the Council paralyzed to shape and implement its own budget -- negating a key tenet of student self-governance.
Ultimately, the University did not have a timely solution for me. This problem should have been recognized and resolved long before I returned to Charlottesville for the summer. As a result of the College's disorganization, I was made to suffer. The University broke a contract, and no one was held accountable.
Since I had to borrow in order to keep my head above water this summer, I am spending this semester working to pay back loans. I no longer have the time to commit to the Council. However, time constraints are not the only reason for my resignation; being disregarded by an inflexible bureaucracy has eroded my desire to work in service of the University community. I cannot, in good conscience, continue to serve as ASC president. The University has alienated one of its strongest student advocates: my heart is just no longer in it.
For these reasons, I can no longer fulfill my commitment to the Arts & Sciences Council. Having been elected by students, I regret that I cannot perform my duties, but the University has left me with no other choice. I am confident that the Council itself will flourish this year under Kerry McNabb's leadership, and that it will feel no immediate damage as a result of the summer's events. I do worry about the principle of student self-governance that has been said to thrive in our community since its inception.
(Mollie Sledd is a fourth-year student in the College of Arts and Sciences.)
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