The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/13/09 Section: Opinions

Student activity fees should go to better causes

Thursday night, as Soulja Boy's annoyingly loud lyrics shook my room, I realized a substantial majority of University students never attended the concert. During this recession, thousands of University students watch as their libraries close early, their fees are hiked arbitrarily and other services cut. What wonderful consolation that we students who pay a so-called "student activity fee" get a 18 year-old rapper who, by some accounts, dropped out of high school in ninth grade!

Like the T-Pain concert before, the Soulja Boy concert is a largely wasteful extravagance thrown together by a sham of an organization that receives too much money for activities that only a small minority (probably under 10 percent) of students enjoy.

For those of us who sit silently in our rooms, shaken by the loudly obnoxious cries of "Superman that ho," Soulja Boy's music is a loud annoyance that represents an utter waste of a mandatory fee, contributed by all 25,000 undergrads. Many of us, unlike Soulja Boy, have assignments due on Fridays or tests at 8 a.m. - the concert's loud bass disturbs us. Basically, our student activity fee subsidizes our own disturbance, all for the pleasure of a very small bunch of concert goers.

As an economics student, I cannot help but think about the true costs of having Soulja Boy - the alternatives we must forgo. Multiple rooms in my dorm, Lipscomb, have seen dangerous mold infestations. The MLC, a quiet sanctum for those who need to study until late hours of the night, shuts down at 2 a.m. because of budget cuts. I am sure my dorm is not the only one that is decrepit and falling apart. Numerous students in Creswell, Rutherford and Payne halls must cope with much worse. Fortunately for them, Soulja Boy is nowhere within listening range.

So perhaps it's time for us to return to the days of Richard Nixon, to represent the often unheard, quiet and yet very restive silent majority on campus. From the SGA elections a weeks ago, I remember plenty of pledges of "stewardship" and financial responsibility, but I didn't hear any substance. Perhaps, for next year, the students running for office should listen to the silent majority that copes with Soulja Boy and T-Pain's noise while trying to complete its assignments on time.

And perhaps, the new SGA government taking power next year, while pledging itself and us a New Deal, should back up its promises with a cut in Soulja Boy-related concert funds.

Muneeb Ahmed
Freshman, Duluth
Economics

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