Have you ever wondered where your tuition goes? Especially in these hard economic times, I’m sure you and your family wonder where these and fees you pay go. The Student Government Association (SGA) is one of the major advocates in the university budget process, which starts this October for the 2009-10 school year. This year, SGA plans to survey all students on what their priorities are and work with the administration to incorporate these into the next university budget.
Last year, students’ top three priorities included free laundry, longer library hours and later Outtakes hours and these three were successfully incorporated. Currently, the first floor of Snell library is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the fall and spring semesters. Students who live in residence halls have 15 free washes and 15 free dries for free through their Husky Card per semester, and if you haven’t noticed or heard the good news, Outtakes is now open until 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, with many new food choices.
SGA wants you to know that we are here to listen to what students want and to be your advocate to the administration. If there is anything you feel we should have in our university, then we will do our best to make it a reality. Students can join the Facebook group called “My Tuition – what am I really paying for” and discuss priority ideas for the survey.
After all the excitement of homecoming week, which begins Oct. 17, SGA will launch a full-out public relations initiative to educate students about the survey and the university budget process. You will have the opportunity to log into the myNEU portal and rank your priorities for the 2009-10 budget. SGA will then begin discussions with the administration explaining and advocating for your needs.
In addition to all of the budget priority work, SGA wants to offer you the opportunity to learn about important financial issues. SGA has teamed up with the Student Financial Services office to offer “Money Matters Seminars” to teach everyone how to budget their incomes, learn about credit cards and credit scores, work on their taxes, pay off their college loans, learn how the economy will affect them as students and many other important financial issues. The first of many of these seminars will be at the end of November.
To stay up-to-date on any of the many issues that SGA is working on for you, you can visit www.sga.neu.edu. If you ever have any issues or questions, don’t hesitate to bring anything to our attention by e-mailing [email protected].
– Jennifer Hardy is a junior mechanical engineering major and SGA vice president for financial affairs.
