Every student (or, to be more specific, every fulltime student consumer equivalent) is required to pay a semesterly levy. This allows us to operate with all the flare and panache of a mid-sized corporation without the bother of having to produce anything other than the semblance of being the student's friend and protector.
We accomplish this by:
* doling out meagre budgets to special interest groups in direct proportion to how much sway they hold on the Society Council.
* attending regional and national student society conferences, where duly elected campus representatives gather to complain about how apathetic their student bodies are.
* controlling as many student consumer services as we can shame the administration into letting us have, and offering token discounts, aka, "JUG NITE" and "2-FOR-1 BAGEL DAYS." We call these subsidies.
* paying ourselves salaries which most graduates aren't going to see for at least five years.
* organizing student fee increase referenda.
Mind you, with the kind of infrastructure that we get to play with, it's next to impossible to NOT manage to do something of benefit to the student body. However, as our operations continue to grow, swell and fester, the likelihood of that diminishes as surely as the sun retreats over the western horizon.
Every year, we hold a meeting open to the entire student body. We use this meeting to make changes to our constitution necessary to ensure the continued well-being of our society and to give the executive raises and increased benefits. Students are invited to introduce motions from the floor, where they will be shouted down and pooh-poohed by those who have a much better grasp of the democratic process. Robert's Rules of Order apply until members of the executive get collectively bored and want to split for take-out sushi. We usually serve free coffee and donuts. These are called subsidies.
Our policies and guidelines are available to any member of the student body who can manage to find someone in our offices who knows where they are. Drop by for a free fridge magnet. This is called a subsidy.
