Wed 15 Mar 2006
An anonymous (for now) alum sent me this.
As many of us know, College Council is not allowed to use money from the Student Activities Fee for “off-campus political purposes”.
I agree with this policy. However, I also believe student participation in political activities is valuable, for the students themselves, the College as a whole, and society at large. Therefore, I would like to put up a small amount of money to fund participation in political activities by Williams student organizations.
I am not talking about very much money here, just enough to rent College vans for rallies in Albany or Boston, or make signs for a demonstration at the Berkshire Mall, amounts of money the College Council might be willing to give organizations if not for this policy.
What I want to know now is the following. Are there currently student organizations that would want but cannot get money for such purposes? Would College Council be allowed to handle this money, and can they be trusted to distribute this money fairly? (I certainly do NOT want to have to handle receipts and write reimbursement checks myself!)
If there is interest, details, including rules governing how the money could be used, will be arrived at in discussion with student organizations who will use the money and other interested members of the community.
Interesting stuff. This connects to a recurring theme of EphBlog: establishing closer direct ties between students and alumni. The College prefers that I give money to it and then it gives money to student groups. The College wants control. But I am more likely to give more money directly to a student group that I feel some affinity for. I give, for example, a bit of pizza money to WSO. I contribute to the Record.
I think that if you brought together, say, Democratic students and alumni — say via an EphCOI — the latter would be willing to give money to the former for things like rally attendance. But the first step is to create the community, to put Ephs with similar interests and goals in touch with one another.
March 16th, 2006 at 6:22 am
Speaking of campus politics / activism, what ever happened to the Williams Debate Union? Is that still going on? I seem to recall that being very active last year, and also a ton of prominent political speakers coming to campus, some partaking in debates. I think that’s critical at a place as isolated as Williams because, at least in my experience there, nothing galvanized the campus to discuss the issues of the day like a prominent, in particular a controversial prominent, speaker arriving. I realize last year was an election year, but there are so many fascinating issues (Islam, Iraq, wiretapping, etc. etc.) at the front of the news right now, and lots of folks on and off campus who could really contribute some interesting ideas to the discussion. I think the Williams Debate Union is either unique or very rare among American colleges like Williams, and I really hope that it is not fading away as it is one of my favorite developments on campus since I’ve graduated, especially with the kind of events happening on campus last year. That is something I would donate to directly. There are a zillion speakers I could suggest all of whom would draw crowds, a lot of times it is just the issue of having sufficient funds. Seems like this year the money is going towards bringing in high-profile arts related events, which is also great, but I think that the campus can and should accomodate both … after all, the only “negative” really attributed by many to Williams is its isolation from urban areas, and if you bring the outside world to campus via big-time cultural, political, and student life events, that negative is completely neutralized.