Hey everyone-
As much as I hate (and therefore try to avoid) fowarding things, I
really think that this is something that you should all know about. We
learned tonight at our RA meeting that IRA (the Inter-Residence
Association, for those of you who aren't up-to-date on the reslife
lingo)is currently "restructuring" thier budget. Turns out, they are
working on increasing the amount that they charge everyone who lives
on campus (yep, that's us), decreasing services that they provide, and
looking to use about $40,000 of their budget (the money that we all
gave them) to give their 7 executive members free housing on top of
the money that they already get paid. This is a pretty important thing
for you guys to know about, so read the email, and go to the meeting
tommorow night if you want to know more about it, or at least have a
voice on the issue.
Have a great night, everyone, and thanks for your attention and
participation in the meeting tonight- you're all awesome.
:) Leah
----- Forwarded message from [log in to unmask] -----
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:03:31 -0400
From: James Matthew Candon <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: James Matthew Candon <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: "Your Voice"
To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
[log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
[log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
[log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]
Please forward these to the rest of the RA?s on your staff!
I am one of the 21 on-campus Senators representing the entire
undergraduate student body who? uh, lives on-campus, so ALL the RA?s
fall under the category as one of my constituents. I felt as one of
your representatives, you would all want to know about changes of this
magnitude with organizations affiliated with ResLife.
Ok, so let me start my story from the beginning? I was first
interested in bringing the Burlington Free Press (BFP) back to campus
a few weeks ago. After some research I found out IRA is in charge of
newspapers (readership). The IRA President said that he as president
made the decision to drop the BFP. He claimed those in IRA were
"restructuring the organization" and that they just couldn?t afford
the readership program like it used to be anymore. It is important to
note IRA raised it's fee from $12 to $15 for each on campus student.
Anyways, I met with the IRA President and his VP/treasurer on Friday
to go over their budget. At the meeting I got a copy of this years
budget. Turns out, the IRA President?s plan of "restructuring the
organization" includes getting free housing for all 7 of the executive
board members paid for by IRA's budget (over $40,000) After you
subtract Hall council's money from the IRA Budget (total
budget = $155,000) they have $115,000, so this increase would be over
1/3 of their money that every resident on campus supplies.
Where did this money come from? IRA this year has reduced the money
allocated for the readership program by 80% from $35000 to $7000, has
reduced the cumulative amount of money allocated for Social,
Educational, and Community Service Programming by greater than 50%,
and has not allocated any money for Co-Sponsorship, Sponsored
Programs, or the Resident Support Group. This increase in Exec Board
compensation is more than twice the cumulative amount of money that
have allocated for all their programs.
SGA is going to be addressing all of your concerns tomorrow night at
7pm in the Livak ballroom thing (however you spell it)? whatever, its
on the 4th floor of the Davis Center. GO!!!!!!!!!! I will get some of
you put onto public forum to speak on behalf of the majority of RA?s
around campus. You will need to address this issue from the RA
perspective, how much work we do, how we didn?t know about it, etc. I
will handle the stats later in the evening towards the end of the
meeting on Senatorial Forum. Basically, COME IN THE BEGINNING!!!! YOU
WILL BE OUT BY 8!!! COME VOICE YOUR OPINION!!!! THE CYNIC WILL BE
THERE!!!!!
MAKE SURE EVERYONE DOES TICKS ME OFF?s
http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmsga/ticksmeoff.php
WRITE TO THE CYNIC
[log in to unmask]
EMAIL YOUR RD?s AND ARD?s, TELL YOUR RESIDENTS IN A HALL MEETING THIS
WEEK, TELL YOUR HALL COUNCILS, TELL YOUR IRA REPs, TONIGHT OR
ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!
IRA?s President along with it?s Executive Board have decided to not
work with SGA any longer. They have been withholding public
information, specifically the budgets of the ON CAMPUS STUDENTS
MONEY!!! IRA refers to my plan to address SGA and write a letter to
IRA as not working in cooperation IRA. Because they are no longer
willing to work with SGA they could try and sneak this through as soon
as Wednesday without anyone noticing. We need to act NOW!!!!
Thanks to everyone who supports me in this and I hope to see you all
tomorrow night at SGA
-Jimmy Candon
----- End forwarded message -----
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