Student Government will spend $32,690 to rent seven buses in order to travel to the University of Tennessee for the sixth-annual football bus trip. While the SG-sponsored trips are nothing new, the increased cost of the trip is troubling. What many in the student body do not realize, however, is that this money is coming from the SG Initiative Fund, which comes directly from the student population. These funds will cover only the bus trip itself. Every student on the trip must purchase their own ticket for $50 and throw in an additional $25 for a T-Shirt and their meals. Even with this extra money, SG relies on LSU Dining to throw in for an extra meal, in addition to the other two meals which students pay for. Funded by the student body at large, the bus trip has room for 500. Until this year, all tickets went on a first come, first served basis. With the Athletic Department's new priority point system, which awards points for those who attend certain athletic events, 200 of those 500 are now reserved for those who have accumulated points, leaving 300 tickets to the 30,000 plus students who have, with their funding of the project, helped to pay for the whole deal. At a time of near record high gasoline prices, the SG-approved trip to Tennessee will take, factoring everything including the game, 27 hours. The other major option SG had was to send the buses to watch the Auburn game, something that was rejected by SG, because in the words of its Chief of Staff Ryan Berni, they "[didn't] want to ignore the overwhelming sentiment of the students, who preferred Tennessee to Auburn." Whether any polling of the student body took place seems to have escaped our knowledge. What does it all boil down to? SG scheduled a bus trip which will cost, according to records obtained by The Daily Reveille from former Assistant Director of Programming for SG for 2005-2006 Raoul Manalac, who was responsible for planning the event, nearly twice the amount of last year's. This information contradicts Berni, who claims that last year's trip was closer to $28,000. Instead of going to Auburn, a campus much closer to our own, 500 students and members of SG will go on a 27-hour trek into the upper South at a cost of $32,690. And, with the fact that less than one percent of students have a shot at going on the trip, we all must ponder the utility of spending money on such excursions. We believe that the necessity of having a bus trip ought to be seriously examined by all those involved in setting up the plans, as well as those of us who are footing the bill. There's nothing wrong with attending away games; students and alumni do it all the time on their own dime, without relying on collective fundraising. SG has a shaky enough reputation for transportation on this campus; maybe cross country trips are best left for Greyhound and AAA. We encourage students to contact their senators and executive officers on this or any other issues they are concerned with. Call them at 225-578-8727, email them at sg@lsu.edu or stop by room 324 in the Union.
After all, it's our government.
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