The Student Government Association voted unanimously to withdraw its membership from the Florida Student Association at the Senate meeting April 17.
UWF is the second state university to withdraw its membership from FSA.
“The real issues were never brought to the table — and too much money was being spent on an organization that was not in direct favor of the UWF students,” said Josh Finley, SGA vice president.
Finley said that SGA spent about $10,000 annually to be associated with the Florida Student Association — but he also said that it was a waste of money because FSA was not productive. The $10,000 was used to travel to FSA meetings and to pay FSA dues.
“We had to drop out due to the lack of leadership from the chair of FSA and because of a breakdown in communication,” Finley said.
Finley said that FSA is supposed to set the legislative agenda and work in favor of the students who attend state universities in Florida. For example, the organization hired a lobbyist who would lobby on behalf of state budget cuts and technology fees.
“There is a lobbyist who represents our school anyway,” Finley said. “So if we needed someone to lobby for SGA we would not really need the individual who FSA hired.”
The Florida Student Association Web site said that FSA aims to ensure the quality, affordability and shared-governance of state universities.
Finley said that an FSA meeting he attended at the University of Central Florida was unproductive and no new information was gained from it — additionally, FSA failed to send agendas and keep SGA abreast with new information.
“When we met, no real business was discussed,” Finley said. “The meetings were like social gatherings where different attendees took the time to talk about their football teams and new buildings being built on their campuses.”
Finley said that the $10,000 came out of the SGA budget. That money was obtained from the Activity and Service fee that is applied to each UWF student’s tuition balance. A total of $10.68 was taken out of each student’s tuition fall 2008 and spring 2009 — $11.20 will be compensated fall 2009 and spring 2010.
SGA might revive its membership with FSA, Finley said.
“We might propose to regain membership with FSA if it proves to be effective and gets things accomplished,” Finley said.
Finley said that Florida State University has also withdrawn its membership from FSA because of the high cost and scarce activity.
“The cost of membership for each school is different,” Finley said. “The amount that each school has to pay is determined by the population of each school — because FSU has a large student body, that school had to pay about $30,000 to be associated with FSA.”
Finley said that there is talk of other universities dropping out of FSA.
“Maybe we can all come together and create an organization that is more effective,” Finley said.
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