AMS Gobbles Student Funds

'AMS declares war' By VAUGHN PALMER A joint meeting of incoming and outgoing Alma Mater Society councils unanimously voted Wednesday to start legal action forcing arbitration in a dispute with the administration over upkeep of SUB. The move ended more than five years of working through proper channels in the dispute which involves the THE U8YSSEY administration's refusal to provide adequate cleaning 4 Vol. LIV. No. 43 VANCOUVER, B.C., FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 1973 * 228-2301 maintenance and security as specified in the SUB lease since the building opened in 1967. In other action, council also voted to close SUB from May 1 to Aug. 26 as an answer to administration president Walter Gage's refusal to collect a proposed AMS fee for summer students unless those students approved the levy. Gage told outgoing treasurer David Dick Tuesday approval of the fee levy by the AMS general meeting scheduled for Friday would be insufficient to convince the board of governors to levy it. "We agree with Gage that summer students should be consulted about the fee but where we split is on whether or not they approve the fee they must pay it or they can't use SUB," Dick said Thursday. The closure of SUB and the legal action were approved by both the rival political factions in the AMS, the Democratic Students' Caucus and the Students' Coalition. "It is important the administration realizes this action is not sponsored by a bunch of radicals and Marxists," said Dick. "These motions have the approval of everybody on council; conservatives, liberals, moderates, radicals, NDP'ers and Marxists." Dick, a member of last year's Students' Coalition executive admitted to council the moves represent the failure of the coalition's 1972 promise to get things done by working through proper channels. "We worked through proper channels and we finally got to the top and the word was simply no," Dick said. "So we've declared total war." Secretary-elect Stan Persky said Thursday he thinks "it is important students realize that even in cases like this where student executives have been very methodical in working through proper channels, the administration still won't yield to the simplest of demands without threat of force." He said the SUB closure is not really directed at summer students. "Both these moves are not by one group of students against another, but by all students against a very incorrigible administration." Gage said Thursday as far as he knows neither dispute has advanced beyond the negotiation stage. "Most areas of the lease dispute can still be discussed, but because of the university's budgetry difficulties students should not expect immediate additional service in the case of such areas as SUB." —mark hamilton photo Dick says - while the AMS sympathizes with the VANDALS LOOTED SUB Thursday and escaped with priceless treasures. Authorities are outraged by the administration on the budget, "they have a legal obligation to destructive behavior of normally responsible UBC students. Physical plant garbage men however expressed provide these services." thanks to The Ubyssey for clearing the crap out of the rat-infested upper corridors of SUB. See page 2: LEASE AMS gobbles student funds By PAUL KNOX assume that the percentage of administrative costs First of three articles will increase to the detriment of programs and The Alma Mater Society has created a monster. services — if nothing is done about it. More properly, those students who were elected to Administration costs of Alma Mater Society as In what was at least partly an elaborate attempt take care of the AMS in recent years have created a percentage of total annual discretionary expendi ture, 1949-50 to 1973-4. to cover up this situation, AMS treasurer David Dick monster. (Budgeted amounts, not actual expenditures.) this year presented the society's finances in an The nature of the monster is this: a whopping 42 obscurantist "program budget" form, which masked per cent of the money at the disposal of the AMS the total amount spent on administration by executive for dispensing goodies to student distributing it among the various AMS programs. organizations is eaten up by administrative costs. AMS hacks also object that the actual amount of The people we have elected to run our student money administered by the society is far more than society next year forecast this percentage will the discretionary expenditure. Thus in today's increase to almost 44 per cent — almost twice the letters section, two of them splutter that the society's percentage chunk salaries and paper clips took out of "cash flow is more than $600,000." This is true the budget 20 years ago. enough. The monster of administration is on a binge. Clubs, intramural athletics, The Ubyssey and special But huge sums of that "cash flow" simply go in council programs have felt its bite in the past. Some T and out. Someone writes them down in one column; may succumb entirely to it in the future. 197374 someone else writes them down in another — a There is only one forseeable way to avoid the fatal The basic $9 student fee has not changed since the process which costs little or nothing. No one — least grip which the inflation spiral of administration has late 1940s. In 1949-50, the total discretionary of all the society's members-at-large — ever sees the on the affairs of the AMS. The AMS must streamline expenditure it produced was $68,000. Just $16,000 — money. Items of this kind are "transfer payments" and decentralize, or students can expect a decrease about 23 per cent — of this sum was spent on from the Winter Sports Centre management in services as more of their annual student fee administration — seeing that it all got to the right committee and to the undergraduate societies: these vanishes in the maw of the AMS business office. place, that no one ripped any off, and so on. two alone account for some $66,000. How do I arrive at these conclusions? With fluctuations, the percentage cost of Despite this sort of tactic, students have First, a word about words. When each of us.shells administration rose steadily until in 1968-69 it consistently rejected executive requests for a fee out $24 to the AMS each fall, $15 is raked off reached more than half the total discretionary increase. Frugal as our economic position forces us immediately (as a result of a student referendum expenditure. to be, we have tried to insist on our money's worth — some 10 years ago) to pay off the mortgage on the Higher enrolments in the following years, the and for the AMS fee we hardly get a bargain at Student Union Building. Of the $9 that is left, a small demise of the Canadian Union of Students and other present. amount (it came to $11,400 this year) must by factors pushed the discretionary expenditure up in The basic issue is this: the AMS runs an referendum go into SUB management, SUB art and the following two or three years, so the administrative operation so that students' money accident benefit funds. These are "non-discretionary administrative cost percentage dropped. But it is can bring a fair return in terms of services and expenditures." clearly now on the rise from the low point of 39.6 per opportunities for activity; but the very maintenance The rest — $148,500 this year — is the student cent in 1971-72. of an over-large business-type operation works council's to play around with, and is known as With the office of academic planning predicting against the principle of putting student fees to the "discretionary expenditure". This is the money that steady enrolment drops in the next few years, and best possible use. funds clubs, intramural athletics, part of The the by-now-entrenched AMS bureaucracy showing The nature of this structure will be looked at Ubyssey's budget and other special programs. no signs of rolling over and dying, we may safely briefly in the next issue. Page 2 THE UBYSSEY Friday, March 16, 1973 Community chest By ELAINE BLESI and ART ARON the world. If we are whole and happy, we can LINO'S Most of us are pretty passive — we do what not help but want to help. we're told, what's available, what's easy. Of And plenty of help is needed right here in TAKEOUT PIZZERIA course, that's what we were raised to do, taught Vancouver. The Consumers. Association of 3621 W. Broadway, Near Alma to do in school and at work. And that is what Canada represents an important part of a fast- keeps the status quo marching along. Not only growing movement. Consumers are becoming LINO INVITES YOU TO TRY HIS DELICIOUS FLAVOR- have we been taught to be passive, but to increasingly aware of their mistreatment, and CRISP CHICKEN THIS SUNDAY. believe that it is impossible not to be passive — are learning how to exert the power of the FAMILY PAK: 15 pieces of juicy chicken, that nothing you can do matters, that one people to change this situation. person can not change anything, that, in effect, Special areas in which students could help coldslaw & Jo-Jo potatoes $ * mg* you can't fight city hall. Yet, anybody with even are surveys and investigations which can Reg. $6.25 for only 4.0U a little experience working to change things double as class projects. They also can put or Save $2.00 on our 21 piece knows two things: You can fight city hall and it those wasted hours before the "boob tube" to Party-Pak - Reg.

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