From the desk of the Student Body President: Building names, student fees on presidents' agenda

Published: Saturday, November 1, 2008

Updated: Sunday, September 6, 2009

How about the new-new dining hall policy? If you haven't heard or if you live under a rock, UNH Dining has decided to let us take food out again. Please don't abuse this: take only one piece of fruit out, or one cookie or brownie. We really would like to be able to keep this privilege.

On a totally different note, does anyone get really frustrated when you go to visit a friend at the Gables, and they tell you "A Tower" but when you get there they all look the same and you have no idea where to go? Well, we talked with the administration about this. Long story short: keep an eye out for new Gables signs. They should be up in the next couple of weeks. Also, we are talking about re-naming the Gables. If anyone has any suggestions, email me.

I don't know about all of you, but this time of the semester seems like the most hectic part of my life. It really feels like all my professors secretly meet up and coordinate all the big projects, papers, essays, presentations, midterms, exams, everything all during the same week. And by some bizarre unfortunate turn of events, I always manage to get a cold or get sick just in time for it all.

It can get stressful. Really stressful. But, in my time here at UNH I've realized that it's really important to set time aside for myself. If I'm not having fun, I'm not able to do my work. At the same time, I have to be honest with myself about exactly how much time I need for fun versus how much time I need for homework and school. It's all about finding a healthy balance. Well, I hope by now, whether you're a first-year student or an upper classmen, you've realized how much UNH has to offer and the diversity of events it offers. I also hope you realize that everything that happens here, we pay for or help pay for it. We all pay undergraduate student fees to attend UNH. That money goes to fund basically everything on campus. It is why we can go to events for free or for a nominal fee. Whether it's going to a soccer game, a football game, a volleyball game or some other sports event (UNH Wildcats Rule!), we paid for it. If you see a movie or go to a lecture in the MUB, we paid for it. If you went to Jimmy Fallon, we paid for it. The tickets were subsidized by our student fees. And really, $10 to see Jimmy Fallon is awesome: that dude was on SNL forever, he was in Fever Pitch and he's next up to take over for Conan O'Brien.

Because we all pay for events, speakers, lecturers, sport events, etc., I hope that everyone has some interest and investment in what happens around campus. I hope that everyone can be an informed citizen and an informed student and start to take advantage of everything this institution has to offer. If you are NOT attending events it's your own money that is going to waste (or your parents' money). Samesies if you skip classes: It's hundreds of dollars that you're blowing. And, honestly, if you're going to eat $500, shouldn't you be getting your money's worth?

UNH students pay a combined $2,336 in mandatory fees, including $560 to Health Services and Counseling, $800 to student athletics, $403 to student recreation and $312 to the Memorial Union. Fees also pay for student activities, technology and transportation.

Use these services: you paid for them! For more information on Student Fees, please contact me or visit the Student Fees website at, http://www.unh.edu/business-services/feeinfo.html Now, what exactly do I do with my free time? I love the MUB. I love going to the entertainers that groups like CAB, MUSO, and SCOPE bring. Fun fact: one of Dane Cook's first shows was in the Strafford Room with about 20 students. That's pretty rowdy. The point is, if you go and see a small-time comedian in the MUB, they just might turn out to be the next Dane Cook. You could get their autograph before they're famous. You could shake their hand and hang out with them after the show. What if you totes became BFFlz? Sorry, I'm slipping into abbrevs. In any event, keep a lookout for fun stuff you're interested in. Take some time off for yourself. Instead of "going out" next weekend, check out what's happening in the MUB. I'll probably be there so you can thank me for suggesting this awesome idea. Or, if for some reason you have a terrible time, you can tell me off or egg my car.

Again, we're looking for suggestions for names for the Gables buildings. Email any ideas to me. unh.sbp@unh.edu.

John Banks and Stephanie Saporito are the Student Body President and Vice-President, respectively

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Recent Comments

Scavengers steal Scan TV sign Saturday

If you read on their facebook page for the stolen sign they accuse them of taking it. I just think that the blame game has gone too far on this campus and people see fraternities as a good scape goat. Yes some do some shady stuff, but at the same time one cannot instantly blame them. "They think it was maybe a fraternity stunt or scavenger hunt of some kind." - taken directly from their facebook page. I do hope that your sign does get returned because I understand how iconic it is for the university and the MUB.

posted by: UNHAlum
Faculty members need a wake-up call

It is time the faculity sucked it up like the rest of us on campus. This year staff over $40,000 received no raise, faculity received 5.5%. Take the 1.5% and be happy.
Do You remember why you became a professor? I hope, to pass your knowledge on to the next generation.
Some of you look like greedy individuals who can only think of the God almighty dollar and not the students you teach and mentor. If we keep increasing out tuition to pay for salaries students will look at other schools and then where will you be, on the street.

posted by: Robert Pettigrew
Faculty members need a wake-up call

I don't think it's fair to compare UNH to UMass (Amherst, I assume) and UConn. Both those schools are considerably larger than UNH — 26,000 and 20,000 undergrads, respectively — while the other schools mentioned are closer to UNH's size, give or take 3,000 students. Massachusetts and Connecticut are also feeling the effects of the recession slightly more than NH is. I realize that UNH commonly uses those schools as comparators, but those two are just on a different level than our school.
There are two other things I'm going to look up before I decide how I feel about this.
First, how does the average UNH professor's salary compare to to other universities? It's probably in line with other schools, but if it's significantly lower, shouldn't UNH profs get that too?
As some have said, if the pay is lower here, professors can quit and go to other schools — if they can find an open position somewhere else. But, if a professor leaves, the school will be left in the position of trying to attract a new teacher with lower-than-average salaries. Enact the raises and UNH remains competitive in keeping and hiring the best professors.
Second, what percentage of UNH's budget goes toward paying the professors? Again, this could be that the professors are asking the university to dedicate an equal amount to paying educators at UNH as they are paid at other schools. If UNH only dedicates 15% of the budget to prof pay and the other schools all dedicate 20%, why shouldn't that be changed? Not to sound Beck-ian, but I don't know and that's something that should be looked at.
Neither of those questions deal with the larger problem of education funding from the state, which I think was something like 2 percent (and that's for all schools, not just colleges). California students staged huge protests yesterday because fee hikes raised they amount they pay per year for school to around $11,000. Meanwhile, that's close to what UNH students have been paying for tuition alone for years, and it continues to rise. If Governor Lynch and our state reps don't start working to increase education funding in the state, all the groups involved, students, professors and administration, need to start showing the kind of outrage that California showed yesterday.

posted by: Clark Kent
Faculty members need a wake-up call

The whiny, lazy, faculty all need to get fired. I haven't seen a more wanna-be-entitled bunch anywhere I have worked. They don't deserve any raises, but instead a pay cut. The rest of the staff had a mandatory salary freeze that will last probably 2 years at least. Faculty also get the bonus of cheaper benefits than the rest of the staff. To top it off they are whiners and complainers about anything not in their contract or if they feel the least bit slighted by the administration. They got out of taking mandatory sexual-harrassment training that everyone else on staff had to take, since somehow their union filed a grievance with the administration that it wasn't required in their contract. The entire training was online and took less than an hour but that's too much for those slackers.
Tenure indeed is the only thing that keeps many of them employed, and it's a concept that needs to get thrown out. Many of them are dead wood, not bringing new ideas to the table and too 'busy' to try anything new, despite having many grad assistants and others to do all their real work, and the most over the top support structure of any organization I have seen.
Yet their greed continues unchecked! Ugh!
Good riddance!

posted by: Your name
Faculty members need a wake-up call

How quickly things change.
Just last week, when editorializing about a group of campus perverts, the attitude of the editors was: "we also don’t think it’s any of our business to judge an organization just because their activities are a shock to our system." Seven days ago we were advised to "shackle our judgment" and told that the campus S&M crowd "deserves respect." Now, a mere week later, when the same editorial board concludes that the UNH faculty union's collective bargaining position is "shocking," what do the editors do? Take their own advice and "shackle their judgment?" Offer respect to the faculty? Conclude that the negotiations are none of their business?
No, none of these. Instead, the hypocritical editors tell "whining" and "greedy" faculty they are lucky to have a job, and should be satisfied with whatever the administration considers to be a fair offer -- because, presumably, the administration ALWAYS tells the truth about university finances, and ALWAYS treats the employees of the university fairly.
Why not spend some effort actually learning the facts regarding the financial situation of the university -- revenues from the state, tuition increases, higher enrollments, grant money? Why not report on the value of the faculty and the university as an economic engine for the state? Why not investigate both the enormous increase in administrative salaries and the bloated growth in new administrative positions over the last two decades? Why not write about the relative compensation of your faculty compared to those with similar education, training, and experience in other fields? I guess these tasks were too challenging. It's just easier to call faculty names.
Everybody loves free-market capitalism as long as the managers and administrators get to call the shots and the workers remain docile and content with whatever the bosses decide they deserve. But, when workers assert their rights and engage in labor negotiations as equals -- well, that is just unacceptable to our enlightened editorial masters. You're all doing a great job of learning how to be corporate lap dog journalists.
Oh, and you spelled "principal" incorrectly.

posted by: Prof. "Greedy," Ph.D.

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From the desk of the Student Body President: Building names, student fees on presidents' agenda

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