Gauntlet drops ball on SU raises

By Paul Galbraith

Editors, the Gauntlet,

RE: All on board the SU money train, Editorial 01.13.2000

Of all the things the Gauntlet could complain about this year in the SU, they have to choose the easy one. After a year of sitting on their hands while the SU plods along with no campaign for tuition, the province short-sells students, and the administration ignores virtually every issue students care about, the Gauntlet has the “courage” to tackle wage “increases.” And they couldn’t be more wrong or misinformed, though I will leave it to others to assert this is a trend.

[Firstly,] this isn’t a raise. It corrects SU salaries for inflation, which maintains them at their current levels. By the way, didn’t the Gauntlet get some extra money from students last year? I seem to recall something about that …

[Their arguments against an equal Exec] show a deplorable misunderstanding of the role of executive within the SU. The Executive have different, yet equal roles, and a false financial indication of Presidential “superiority” is insulting to the Vice-Presidents and the organization. Each executive member is expected to make the same sacrifices. Besides, it is a rare year indeed when many of the VPs do not out-work and out-accomplish the President… Since when does salary equal respect?

Instead of focusing on the important issues that these self-proclaimed “watchdogs” ought to be concentrating on, the Gauntlet instead looks to the easiest of all possible criticisms of the SU, and of political leaders in general. Well, at least the Gauntlet has emerged from its hibernation and is fighting for something, I suppose. Too bad they have chosen a cheap target, with little or no information to back them up, and attacked a policy that makes sense both financially and organizationally. A policy, I might add, foisted upon us by a financially superb SU that has, in the last five years, actually lowered SU fees, increased services, and posted considerable surpluses they have reinvested into students.

What a shame.

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