Student leaders receive stipends

By KARA McCONNELL
and TRACY WILSON
Collegian Staff Writers

The removal from office of Council of Commonwealth Student Government President John Baer and Vice President Charles Stevens last month raised questions about the validity of tuition stipends for student government leaders.

Last semester, Baer proposed to make it possible for the CCSG president to serve more than one term, which led some CCSG members to question his motives.

"There's another year paid for," said Kurt Maldovan, freshman representative at Penn State Fayette.

Officers who resign or are impeached from their positions only receive stipend compensation up through the time of their departures from office, said Stan Latta, director of Unions and Student Activities.

The Undergraduate Student Government, the Graduate Student Association and CCSG all receive stipend funds, he said.

The Office of Unions and Student Activities allocated the stipend money to certain student organizations as compensation for lost job opportunities due to the amount of time student leaders must dedicate in their positions, Latta said.

"I can't have a job," USG President Caroline Casagrande said. "My days are filled with USG and my nights are filled with USG."

Stipend money is given to organizations and divided among members at the group's discretion. Stipends go toward tuition through the Office of the Bursar, Latta said.

Endowments and parking fine revenues fund the stipends given out by Student Activities, he said.

"Some devote their entire lives (to their organizations) and don't get a dime. Some don't deserve stipends, but those are much more rare," Casagrande said.

In addition to compensating its president and vice president, deserving CCSG staff members receive stipends from the surplus money, said CCSG Vice President Mike D'Ausilio.

"I'd do it if we didn't get anything," he added.

As long as student leaders are working for the students, some believe the incentive is justified.

"I certainly think it's fair people are compensated for work they do as long as it is for all the students in the university and not a special interest group," Taylor Putney (senior-industrial engineering) said.

Others believe student leaders should have to make time in their schedules for everything, just like other students.

"Plenty of people here don't have jobs. I have meetings five days a week, and I have a job," Elizabeth Carey (sophomore-accounting) said.

USG Senate President John Wood said he has gained much more from his student government position than a tuition break.

"(Stipends) are along the lines of a reward or an enticement to do a better job," he said. "If a student is in it for the stipend, that's the wrong reason."