This past week, SGA has been celebrating I <3 GT week, an incredible outreach and celebration of us as a student body and Institute.
On Monday, March 26, 2018, we celebrated I <3 Traditions. On Tuesday, we celebrated I <3 Diversity. Tuesday night, UHR cut the budget of the Technique in half.
Rarely am I, or I hope most students here, ashamed of Georgia Tech. We are an incredible and innovative school and people who work towards pioneering STEM fields. On Wednesday morning, I was not proud. I was ashamed to be a member of UHR and SGA.
We, as a legislative body, failed. We failed the Georgia Tech community. We failed the very Institute we represent. We failed ourselves.
The Technique is a Georgia Tech tradition and has been one since 1911. If students want to say something, they do so through the Technique.
When the Musician’s Network was put on a hiatus, students wrote Letters to the Editor voicing their disapproval. When the tragedies of fall 2017 occurred, the Technique rose as the voice and representative of Georgia Tech not only to the student body but also to the entire U.S. community.
The Technique has been and should always be an integral component to the Georgia Tech
community.
By cutting the Technique printing budget in half, UHR and SGA are crippling student publications and more importantly, the voice of the student body.
By crippling the Technique, UHR has therefore crippled all student media publications. As the largest and most recurring student publication, the Technique, with its larger ad revenue, supports all student publications.
SGA and the Technique — as Tier II organizations — have a responsibility to support each other. Only then can we prosper as a community.
Never have I seen such blatant disrespect towards a vital part of the Institute. To not only be misinformed of how revenue is obtained, but to also propose that eliminating the Technique’s only source of income and legitimately believe that this action somehow will turn a profit is heavily irresponsible of UHR as well as its representatives.
A more overarching and equitable cut across all Tier II organizations would have had a greater effect financially without unnecessarily targeting specific campus organizations.
The Technique hosts the SGA Presidential debate every year; they reach out to collaborate with and cover events by SCPC, DramaTech and WREK Radio, to name a few. Where is the same supportive and collaborative spirit from SGA?
At a previous session of UHR, several vocal representatives showered SCPC with intense praise and encouraging promises of more financial support. Even a fraction of the love had for SCPC would have saved the Technique and student publications as a whole.
The goal and mission of the Undergraduate House of Representatives is to empower student organizations, embody student opinions and preserve student integrity.
We did not do that on the night of March 27.
I implore the Graduate Student Senate to reach out to the student body and be open to talks with the Technique in order to remedy this unfair and selective targeting of this specific student
publication.
I also implore you, passing Technique reader, to reach out to SGA and voice your concerns. You are a student. You pay money to be here. In case you were unaware, the Student Government Association controls and delegates the collective sum of the student activity fee.
Speak up about how your money should be spent.