Santa Fe College administration announced Friday it would no longer offer job employment to Student Government leaders. Though the eight leaders still in office will receive wages until the close of Spring semester, the college immediately stopped paying the organization’s student directors last week.
Leadership members like the Student Senate president and Student Body president get paid to fulfill administrative duties, according to Vice President of Student Affairs Naima Brown.
But the college decided to stop paying leaders because of blurred lines between attending to SG issues and carrying out job responsibilities.
Before this decision, each year’s SG leaders were offered job opportunities as educational aides, in which they worked 10 hours a week at minimum wage.
Current leadership members will continue to work through Spring semester because they were promised employment upon taking office, said programming finance Chairman Austin Moody, one of the eight current leaders.
Brown said SG directors were immediately denied pay following Friday’s decision because, under college rules, students — including SG leaders — are not allowed to hire on behalf of the college.
“Students were hiring people for the college, which isn’t right,” Moody said.
Next semester, Moody and his colleagues will work under supervisors, whom the college will assign. Leaders will no longer work in their offices, which Brown said are reserved for SG duties.
Internal affairs director Benjamin Myers stopped getting paid Friday and said he felt the consequences immediately.
“Honestly, 80 bucks every two weeks — that’s grocery shopping, that’s gas money, that’s vital funds I need,” Myers said.
What made the pay cut frustrating for Myers, he said, is how unexpected it was. And he wasn’t the only one upset.
“If I’m upset about anything, I’m upset about the fact that they didn’t give anyone any notice and the timing of it,” said Sen. Connor Levine, 19.
Before it was announced during a business meeting last Friday, Levine said he expected funds spending or pitches about spending accounts be discussed.
“But in reality, it was just them saying, ‘You’re done here, we’re taking all your money, no one’s getting paid anymore,’” he said. “It wasn’t even a formal process, it was just like, ‘You guys can hold your positions,’ but it’s a joke now.”
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 12/10/2014]
