IUSA candidate issues stipend challenge to other tickets

This year, the INdiana ticket for the IU Student Association elections is planning to give back to students.\nDavid White, presidential candidate for the INdiana ticket, plans to give his $4,000 presidential stipend to the IU Foundation if he’s elected, and has challenged his opponents to do the same. The stipend would be used for \nstudent scholarships.\nSo far, Luke Fields, presidential candidate for the Big Red ticket, has agreed to donate his stipend; not because he is trying to keep up with the other ticket, he said, but because he hopes to show that he is not in it for the money and because the Big Red ticket is committed to public service. \n“These are people who have really committed themselves to the betterment of the student body,” Fields said of his ticket. \nJoe Weis, who is running for president on the Kirkwood ticket, said he is not ready make a decision.\n“I don’t foresee me making a decision on this in the immediate future,” he said. \nWhile Weis agreed that giving money back to the students is a good idea, he said he isn’t sure that the presidential stipend is the way to do it. Weis said the stipend is meant to help presidents focus their efforts on IUSA by relieving financial pressure. \n“I don’t foresee myself being able to keep the time commitment as well as having a job,” Weis said. \nCurrent IUSA president W.T. Wright said that this year, each of the executive members was given a $4,000 stipend. He said the stipend is intended to “ensure that they’re making IUSA their No. 1 priority.” \nWhite, however, disagreed. \n“Originally, the stipend was set in place because executives complained they were staying over the summer and working hard and weren’t able to get internships,” White said. “I don’t feel comfortable getting a scholarship when I know it’s students taking out loans who pay for that scholarship.” \nWhite first found out about the stipend as an undergraduate while helping another IUSA ticket to campaign. \n“I think I had the reaction most students would have,” he said. “Which was, ‘Huh? They get paid for that?’” \nWhite said students pay for IUSA each semester and he believes students should be seeing those dollars as tangible benefits.