Cutting down bureaucratic ineffiencies

We are under the impression that the IU Student Association is supposed to train the leaders of tomorrow. However, when we look at the IUSA budget passed last week, we find ourselves wondering what exactly our alleged student leaders are learning. What are they gaining by passing a budget where 70 percent is dedicated to operating expenses, save lessons in bureaucratic inefficiency?\nIUSA is supposed to be the voice of the student body. However, we have serious questions about how much voicing it can do on our behalf when it spends most of its money on existing and unnecessary fringe benefits. We have heard the argument in favor of a $2,100 allotment for parking passes, that they increase student government efficiency, but we don't buy it. It would be more efficient for the student government to pull out its bikes and use those couple thousand to develop a program that would benefit to students more generally. \nLikewise, we have not seen a convincing argument to hold the $6,000 leadership retreat or the end-of-year banquet IUSA has budgeted for. Cutting out the 2005 retreat, banquet and the parking passes would give IUSA an extra $10,000 -- almost 10 percent of the total budget -- with which to do something for the benefit of the student body as a whole. \nWe do not begrudge the executive leadership their $4,500 annual stipends. IUSA is, after all, a time-consuming endeavor and something that should not be the prerogative of only rich students. However, the organization could probably do with less than $48,400 in office expenditures. We haven't seen a detailed list of last year's IUSA office shopping list, but certainly there is fat that can be trimmed from its $40,000-plus expenses.\nIf IUSA is supposed to be training the future leaders of Indiana, America and the world, then one thing IUSA should be teaching students is responsible budgetary policy. \nWe recommend that IUSA should not spend more than 30 percent of its total budget on operational expenses. Introducing and enacting such a spending cap would make for a good lesson in fiscal restraint and would also force future iterations of the IUSA to focus only on what is truly essential to its operations. \nLiberating itself from its tradition of bloated operational budgets might also help IUSA find more flexibility to develop new and innovative programs for the student body it theoretically represents. If there is one lasting legacy the Shortle administration could give the student body, how about pushing through such a monumental budgetary change this year?\nOne traditional and often repeated criticism of IUSA is that it is a powerless organization that does nothing of import for the student body. While we do not entirely agree with that assessment, we do feel IUSA could make its utility to the student body more apparent if it spent 70 percent of its money on the students rather than internal housekeeping.It is, after all, a lot easier to be effective in the name of students when you give yourself an extra $40,000-plus to work with.